The Trio Together
by Ashlyn-i
Summary: Sequal to the Trio. A promised holiday is cancelled when the team recieve an urgent message calling them to an abandoned castle. There, they must delve into the history of the mysterious Trio to protect the future from the secret mistakes of the past.
1. Prologue

Aren't I lovely? I am posting this earlier than intended. Cherish it, because this may be the last update in a while. So I am giving you two chapters to read. Aren't I lovely?

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters from MI High (obviously) but I do own the Trio, the Evens family, the Professor and any agents I make up along the way.

See, I do take care of my reviewers and give them what they wish. This would have been out for Christmas, but I was ill so...

* * *

The wintery wind whistled through the bare trees on the barren mountainside and sent shivers down the spines of most of the SWAT team members crouched behind boulders or lying beneath the scant shrubbery scattered here and there. Most shifted their position and checked their equipment once again, secretly wishing that they were at home, in bed, instead of hidden on an alpine mountain with no prospect of being warm in the near future. Nothing out here had any warmth to it: leafless trees, cold hard rock and a sliver of moon lighting everything dimly white - a frosty white.

The worst thing about this place was the castle which was the reason of them coming here. Seeming to be part of the mountainside opposite them; it stood, black against the little moonlight there was, like something from a horror movie. Twin towers, cylinder with pointed roofs, one with a greater height advantage than the other, rose vertically from the edges of the battlements furthest from the cliff-face. No lights shone from the many windows, except for a solitary candle burning in a window in the cliff wall below where they knew the door to be, suggesting the presence of lower levels.

In the shadow cast by an overhanging rock, four figures stood. One of them glanced between the despairing scene in front of him and the photo in his hand.

'You must admit that it looks a little different by night than it does by day,' he said with a half laugh, turning back to the other members of the group.

The female amongst them snatched the picture back. She took a deep breath before saying calmly, 'I'm sorry. But I wasn't going to take a team scouting at night, in the dark, when the mountains are as they are. All a man has to do is step on a bit of loose rock (that he might have been able to avoid by day) and then he would have brought the entire mountainside crashing around him.'

Her remaining companions blinked at her. 'You don't half exaggerate,' the man to her left said.

The woman shrugged. 'I wasn't going to risk it.'

The remaining man put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a little squeeze. 'You were right to do so, honey,' he said.

The woman turned to smile at him. 'I thought so too,' she said. They kissed briefly. The other two still turned away so not to look at them.

'Wish you two wouldn't do that,' the man to the couple's left grumbled as they parted, 'really get's on my nerves.'

'Well, don't look then,' said the man with his arm around the woman, 'and don't think about it either.' The woman giggled.

The second man kicked a stone and sent it spinning away into the gloom where it crashed and clattered noisily into the valley far below, earning him a glare from the first man, who then moved away from the couple and their complaining companion to find another shelter amongst the silent SWAT team members.

There was a short pause before he started whining again. The couple shared a quick, frustrated glace before turning back to him. 'Why are we even here?' he was moaning quietly. 'Isn't this the job of the... the French or the Swiss or whoever?'

'You need to go back to training and be re-taught your geography,' the man said, 'this is Austria, nearer Germany than France or Switzerland, and we're here instead of them because although Professor Schmitz is German, there have been talks of him compromising with SKUL and you know how much MI9 like to keep SKUL their business. Now stop complaining, Campbell, or I'll send you back to base.' Campbell shivered as another gust of wind blew around the corner and muttered into his chest. The couple watched him in silence as he shuffled closer to the rock face and huddled near a scrawny shrub as far from the couple as he could go without seeming rude.

The man shook his head. 'He complains more than Alex does and Alex is two.'

'Nearly three,' the woman corrected him, 'and Alex doesn't complain because he is happy, isn't he?'

Isaac Evens smiled and bent closer to his wife. Jenna Evens smiled back and leaned into her husband as Isaac planted a kiss on her forehead. 'Stay close to me, won't you?'

Jenna returned the kiss and whispered in his ear, 'I'll always stay by you.'

Isaac moved away and Jenna followed him. As they passed him, Campbell staggered to his feet and hurried after them. The three took their positions within the SWAT team and their fourth companion joined him. Isaac turned to face the team assembled and said in a low, carrying voice, 'I don't see much point in waiting any longer; let's go!'

Taking over the castle was relatively easy. There was no-one there to stop the fifteen or so SWAT team members storming in, led by the four MI9 agents. They spilled through the doors, whose rotting wooden barricade broke on the first shove, and split into many different groups. Most went charging up the stairs to search through the castle just in case, the four agents, accompanied by a couple of the most trusted SWAT members, headed for the stairs to the lower levels, hidden behind the main sweeping staircase that led to a higher balcony.

They found Professor Schmitz on the first of the two basement floors. He was coming up the stairs, confused by all the loud bangs and crashes that now echoed around his castle. He didn't see the small group racing towards him as he was blinded by the brilliance of their flashlights, but he still turned and fled back down the stairs he had just come up. Four of them gave chase after him; Campbell and one of the SWAT members stayed behind to search that floor for any dealings with SKUL.

The other four ran down the stairs and emerged in the professor's laboratory. Machine parts were scattered here and there and wires were draped over nearly every available surface. Papers were spread over the rest, piles upon piles of papers, all containing the same scrawled handwriting and many of them had diagrams. Dust hung in the air as the spiders webs did from the ceiling. But of the Professor, there was no sign.

Isaac leapt into action. 'Paul, could you take the left hand side, I'll do right. Try and find where the professor might have gone.' Their remaining MI9 companion nodded and departed with the last SWAT member. 'Come on Jenna,' Isaac said softly and together they started searching.

A few minutes later, a shout sent Isaac racing across the lab to find the other two. When he arrived, Paul (the MI9 agent) was standing next to patch of wall which had swung open to reveal a hidden flight of stairs. 'I sent the SWAT team member up them,' Paul said as soon as Isaac had stopped this, 'just in case he could catch the professor, but I doubt he can, given the head start Schmitz had. I just hope whoever you left to guard the doors are actually doing their job.'

Isaac peered up the gloomy, cobweb-riddled passageway. 'So do I,' he agreed. He turned his back on the darkness and flashed his torch over the many paper or machine covered surfaces until the torchlight came to rest on something that he had never seen before. 'What is that?'

Jenna was using her torch to brush away a patch of cobwebs when she heard it: a faint, but definitely human, cry. She flicked her torch on and moved closer to a set of boxes in the corner that she had mistakenly thought were empty. Instead, her eyes widened with horror as she realised that the boxes weren't boxes but cribs. Similar to the cribs found in a hospital, except with a glass lid and their own ventilation system. Jenna ran to the nearest and looked in.

The boy inside must have been about nine months old, judging by his size. He stared back up at her with big, round eyes of the darkest brown she had seen, yet his curls were straw blond. But even as she watched, his hair became darker, limper, longer; his eyes lightened slightly; the muscles in his face began to shift until Jenna found she was staring at an exact (if only slightly younger) copy of herself.

Jenna stared, half in horror, half in wonder at the boy who then, as if trying to wake her from her trancelike state, started to morph back. Jenna started and staggered back towards the centre of the room. 'Isaac!' she called, slightly more panicked than she had hoped, 'Isaac!'

Isaac appeared from the gloom, looking slightly amazed himself. 'Jenna,' he said, 'you won't believe…' he stopped when he saw her face. 'What's wrong?'

Jenna was standing helplessly in the middle of the lab, shaking, her hands clasped just beneath her chin. 'Isaac,' she whispered. 'There's a boy…'

Isaac was by her side in an instant. He took her hands in his and stared into her eyes for a long time, checking that she was alright. Seeing no form of concussion, he looked past her, at the cots in the corner, then back at her. 'What happened?' he asked.

Jenna took his hand and led him to the cot where the little boy sat, as if he was waiting. He looked ordinary at first, but as this new person came into sight he began to take his form until a very young Isaac sat in the cot staring up at the two adults. Isaac stared wide eyed, until the boy had returned to his real form, or at least what they thought might be.

'How does he do that?' Isaac asked in a hushed voice.

'I don't know,' Jenna whispered back. They exchanged a quick glance. The boy continued to stare at them. Jenna finally moved away, towards another lit cot. The child inside was much smaller than the previous and fast asleep, his tiny hands curled into fists.

'There's another boy in this one,' she told Isaac, 'only a couple of months by the look of him.'

'Isaac!' a voice called across the lab, causing them both to jump. Paul was striding across the lab to them, piles of old papers in his hands. He stopped, confused, when he saw them both clustered round the cradles. 'What are those?'

Isaac gestured for him to come closer and look at the elder boy. 'We don't know who they are, or why they are here,' he said, 'but the professor's done something to them.'

Paul nodded. 'I think it has something to do with that machine we saw earlier,' he said, shifting through the papers he had brought over and showing one to Isaac. It was an old article from the 1940's. Despite being written in German, Isaac could read it perfectly. 'The professor appears to be a supporter of Hitler's Aryan race, but he believes that they can be genetically made.'

Isaac lowered the paper to stare at the little boy, who was still watching them with large brown eyes. 'So he tried it on them,' he said in a low, sad voice. The little boy continued to gaze at Isaac. Paul was reading more of the documents he had picked up.

'…such potential…' was all Isaac heard of his muttering.

'What?' Isaac asked.

Paul looked up. There was an odd look in his eye that Isaac didn't like. 'Think about it,' he hissed, 'these children are going to grow up and they could be anything they wanted. Think about how much MI9 could benefit if they had agents who could shape-shift or whatever the other two can do. This could take Britain to another level; bring back the glorious empire; unit the world under one flag, the British flag!'

'Paul…' Isaac began, but Paul cut across him.

'Come on, Isaac!' he snapped. 'There are superpowers growing in the east and the Americans have gone too long without British influence. If we use this machine, create an army of enhanced warriors, who's to stop us?'

The mad glint in his eyes was definite. Isaac stared, aghast, before reaching out and trying to tug the papers from his friend's grasp. 'Come back to reality,' he said firmly, 'this is too dangerous to mess with. We should just destroy it and find these children homes so they can at least have a chance at a normal life.'

Paul blinked and Isaac thought for a moment that the madness had passed. But then Paul wrenched, the papers tore and Paul staggered backwards into the centre of the lab. He riffled through the files he was holding, letting a few scraps fall to the floor, and when he looked back up, he was smiling triumphantly.

'If that was meant to destroy it,' he said, 'then you failed. I have the blueprints for the machine,' he said, waving the papers in the air, 'and if you won't let me take them back to MI9, then I'll take them to someone who will listen to me and plans for glory. I will have these gifts.'

'Paul!' Jenna said pleadingly, stepping forward to join her husband who was still standing beside the older boy's cot looking slightly dazed, 'please! Think about what you're doing!'

'I have thought,' Paul said in a quiet voice, 'I've thought and thought. I want to be someone, not just a right-hand man or a government's puppet. I want to stand out as the person who united the world.'

He's gone mad, both Jenna and Isaac thought sadly. Neither of them could work out how or when but Paul had clearly lost it.

A loud voice snapped them out of their sad contemplation. 'Guys!' Campbell called as he climbed the final steps and stood at the bottom of the stairs looking pleased with himself, 'look at these. This professor must be some sort of pervert because he has all this information about these kids and some baby photos of them and… Paul?' for at that moment, with one final glance at his two companions, Paul had turned and run at Campbell who was blocking the way up.

'Stop him, Campbell!' Isaac yelled, racing after Paul. But it was no good. As Campbell moved towards him, Paul reached out with one hand and smashed Campbell's head against the wall. Campbell collapsed, blood trickled from a wound in the side of his head and Paul rushed past him, up the stairs. Isaac followed seconds behind him, leaving Jenna to deal with Campbell.

Jenna checked Campbell's breathing and the gash on his head. It was thankfully not life threatening, but Jenna had to bandage it anyway. Jenna unclipped her first aid kit from her belt and hurriedly cleaned and bandaged the wound. Campbell had passed out several minutes ago.

A small cry stopped Jenna as she packed up. It came from the furthest cradle. Jenna approached it slowly, opened the glass lid and picked up its occupant. The baby girl blinked up at her, before giving a soft moan and resting her head against Jenna's shoulder. Tiny fingers scrabbled at Jenna's throat before they found her necklace – a single pendant hanging from a cord – and closed around it.

Jenna twirled with the baby girl as men started shouting and she whispered to her, 'it's alright. I'm here. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I promise.'

* * *

Here you are! Prologue done! Remember, the prologue to the Trio seemed to have no meaning at first, but turned out to be the main reason for the fic so my advice is to read this one carefully and see what you can gather from this.

:) Chapter One...


	2. Holidays

I thought as I was starting a new fic that I probably wouldn't be updating for a while, I'll add the next chapter to keep you happy. So you better be happy. :)

* * *

Carrie judged the distance carefully. She would only have one shot at this, if she failed, it would mean total embarrassment. Carrie tilted her head to one side, checking her angles carefully before she started to run. In two leaps she made it to the edge and gracefully somersaulted into the crystal clear water below.

She came up on the other side of the pool where Oscar was lounging on the wall, Rose sitting beside him on a sun-bed with a book. She beamed at Oscar who raised his eyebrows looking suitably impressed. 'Nice,' Oscar said, grinning back at Carrie, 'very impressive.' He glanced past Carrie, smiled and then nodded to something behind her. 'It appears I'm not the only one who enjoyed watching that.' Carrie turned to see a group of tanned boys not much older than them nudging each other and muttering, constantly glancing in her direction.

Carrie turned her back on them and rolled her eyes. 'Typical,' she murmured. Oscar's grin widened. Carrie giggled and swivelled round to face Rose, who still hadn't looked up. 'Must be a very good read,' Carrie called to her.

Rose finally looked up. 'Yes,' she said once she had worked out what Carrie had said from the expression on her friend's faces, 'I really like it.'

'We can tell,' Carrie said, 'only Rose would come to sunny France, to a five-star hotel, paid for by MI9 as a "congratulations-for-completing-a-mission-no-one-in-nine-years-has-reward", find the best pool on campus, and try and read a library.'

'The library in here is pretty good,' Rose took the opportunity to comment, 'except most of it is in French.'

Carrie sighed dramatically, 'that's not the point Rose. The point is that when you come to a place like this, you're supposed to go swimming, relax, do fun activities, you know… not sit and read.'

'Reading is relaxing,' Rose argued, 'and I'm not that keen a swimmer.'

'Well, we can fix that,' Carrie said, winking at Oscar. Together they climbed out of the pool and stood either side of Rose. Rose looked up warily.

'What are you two-?' she started but Oscar interrupted, 'put the book down Rose or it gets wet.'

Rose seemed guess what they were about to do. 'No!' she said, dropping her book so she could curl up as small and tightly as possible, 'No!' But there was nothing she could do. Oscar's hand gripped her wrists tightly and peeled them away from her knees, Carrie took hold of her ankles and they hefted Rose off the sun-bed and stood by the pool edge, swinging Rose slightly between them.

'One…' Carrie said.

'Two…' Oscar said, raising his voice above Rose's protests.

'Three!' they yelled together and swung Rose into the pool. She landed with a large splash, shortly joined by two more as Oscar and Carrie jumped in after her. They all came up laughing until a whistle brought them back to their senses. A hotel official was standing on the opposite side looked furious. Oscar swam over to talk to him. Rose splashed back to the side and heaved herself out to cloak herself in a towel.

Seeing Carrie on her own, the boys from earlier took this opportunity to come over and flirt. Carrie ignored them at first but when they got too irritating she got out and faced them. When Oscar returned, he found most of the lads in the pool swimming away from the "madwoman"; the rest had fled by foot, being fortunate enough to not have been pushed in by Carrie, who was now sitting on the edge of Rose's sun-bed fuming. Oscar laughed when Carrie explained that the flirting had irritated her and joined the lads in the pool seconds later.

When they had got bored of the pool, they returned to their hotel room. Oscar opened their fridge and pulled out three cokes, which he handed round. Carrie was still complaining.

'How did guys like that manage to afford to stay here anyway?' she said after a while.

'Their friends of the American teenage boy band "Dusk", two of whom you pushed in,' Rose commented, settling in an armchair, her hair wrapped in a towel, reading again.

'Huh,' Carrie said, trying to sound absentminded, 'oh well.'

Oscar booted up his laptop, a recent birthday present from Frank. He opened his email, but there was nothing new. He instead logged into the MI9 system using his own password and checked for any recent news. Carrie seemed to sense what he was doing because she called across, 'anything new?'

'Not really,' Oscar said, 'although Stark has put up another message asking agents to stop gossiping behind his back about his time during Agent Training as revealed by certain friends of ours.'

Carrie snorted and started laughing. 'That was hilarious!' she screamed, 'I knew that Stark was an idiot, but I thought that might have been a recent development due to some sort of accident.'

'Carrie!' Rose said, glancing disapprovingly at her fellow agent. Carrie stuck her tongue out childishly when Rose went back to her book and Oscar bit his lip so that he didn't laugh. Something beeped and Oscar smiled as he realised that Frank was trying to contact him.

'Hey Frank,' he said, as Frank's face appeared on screen, 'how are things?'

'Pretty dull over here,' Frank said, 'how's France?'

'Great!' Oscar said. Carrie stuck her head over his shoulder and said, 'this place has three swimming pools, a really nice restaurant and we're surrounded by celebrities! Like today I pushed a boy band into the pool because they were flirting with me!'

'Something tells me that he's not really here to talk about the holiday,' Rose said, coming to sit on Oscar's other side, 'are you, Frank?'

'No,' Frank agreed sadly, 'I'm not.' They waited for him to continue, but Frank suddenly seemed not to want to talk about it.

'Why have you called then?' Carrie said at last.

Frank thought about how to phrase his next sentence. 'We received a message late last night appealing help.'

'What's that got to do with us?' Oscar asked.

'Two reasons,' Frank explained, 'firstly: the message came from somewhere in Austria and you are our only team abroad. Not that is the real reason as it doesn't take that long to fly a different team out there. The second reason is that you were… well… requested.'

'Us specifically?' Rose asked suspiciously.

'No,' Frank admitted, 'but the other people were Violet, Lewis and the Worm, who are on a mission up north (would tell you where and what they're doing, but I'm not privileged with that information), and Blaine and Daisy, who are in America helping the CIA with a mission (but don't tell anyone I told you). So you'll have to go.'

At the mention of the agents listed, Carrie, Oscar and Rose had looked at one another and said, 'the Trio.'

'Has to be, doesn't it?' Carrie said, 'who else would ask for us?'

'Did they say what they needed help with?' Rose asked Frank.

'Not really,' Frank said, 'the message was pretty vague. It only specified that they needed help with something and that they would like you to come. Sorry I can't be more helpful.'

'Doesn't matter,' Rose said, 'I'm sure we'll find out when we get there.' She paused. 'Where are they in Austria?'

'Somewhere near the Alps,' Frank said, 'although not any longer. They have moved on since. Chief Agent Stark will fill you in more tomorrow when you arrive in Austria. Assuming that you'll take this mission that is?'

'Of course we're taking it,' Rose said, turning to her companions for support, 'aren't we?'

Carrie looked a little uneasy. 'I don't know, Rose,' she said, 'what if it's a trap?'

'What do you think, Oscar?'

Oscar had been gazing at the laptop's webcam for the last few minutes without taking much of the conversation in. He had been thinking about their last encounter with the infamous Trio and of one member in particular. Lizzie Evens, the agile, martial arts expert in the group (and only female), codename Lee, had become a close friend of Oscar's over the past year and had left him a promise after they're sudden departure at the beginning of the summer. I'll see you soon: that was how the promise had started. Lizzie had then promised to explain everything to Oscar then. Could this be it?

'Oscar?' Both girls were looking expectantly at him.

'I agree that we cannot rule out the possibility that this is a trap,' Oscar said slowly, glancing at Carrie, 'but I think that this is the Trio and if it is then we should defiantly go.'

Rose smiled and exchanged a meaningful look with Carrie. 'That's settled then,' she said, 'we're going.'

'Excellent,' Frank said happily, 'I'll inform Stark immediately and get back to you with details about tomorrow.' They all smiled at one another and Frank started drifting towards conversation to do with their holiday so far. As Carrie started to describe all their activities and Rose described all the historic places that she had visited, Oscar slid off the bed and wandered out onto the balcony. He stood there and stared out at the gardens below him, his mind miles away.

'Oscar?' Carrie's voice brought him back to the present sharply. Oscar glanced round. Carrie had come over to join him. The laptop was lying closed on the bed and Rose had returned to her book. Carrie looked concerned. 'Are you alright?'

'I'm fine,' Oscar said, 'just thinking.' He looked back out at rose pink sky and deep orange of the setting sun. Carrie stayed by him, waiting for him to talk. 'What do you think they need help with?' Oscar asked eventually.

'I don't know,' Carrie said, 'but I think Rose has a theory. We'll find out tomorrow what it is, no doubt.'

Oscar nodded. 'Tomorrow,' he said and turned his back on the setting sun.

* * *

There you go. As I've said before, I don't know when the next update will be, but I will try and make it as soon as possible.

Tell me what you think so far!


	3. Travelling There

Sorry this chapter is quite short and not much happens but I needed to slot it in.

I am welcome for suggestions as long as they are reasonable. I might use them, I might not depending. I do still have to plan the next fic so we'll see. They certainly won't appear in this fic as I have this one planned out.

Disclaimer: I don't own MI High (but I think you know that by now)

The villiage and the castle do not exist so don't waste your time looking for them. I cannot say if the MIA don't exist in case I get another unexpected visitor...

* * *

The sun had barely risen when Oscar, Rose and Carrie met in the hotel lobby to sign out. They left most of their belongings in their rooms to be collected by an MI9 representative later that day. Outside, a black jeep with tinted windows sat waiting for them.

The three teens were dressed in their spy uniform and the black stylish and practical hiking boots that Frank had supplied them with a year back for a mission to beat SKUL to the top of Ben Nevis to stop them setting off a hypnotic beam that would have persuaded all the people in Scotland to transfer huge amount of money to SKUL (Rose was still sceptical a year later about whether the beam would have worked). The sleepy receptionist told them that everything was fine and to have a nice day; they stepped out of the gold and glass double doors and the passenger doors of the jeep swung open.

With a glance at one another, the team climbed in the back, the doors closed and the jeep drove off. The three spies sat in the back in silence. The two men in the front didn't look like they wanted to make conversation. Carrie asked if they knew where they were going. One of the men said something. Carrie looked at Oscar. Oscar paused before translating, 'he doesn't know our final destination; only where they're meant to be taking us.'

'That suggests more than one car journey,' Rose murmured.

Sure enough, six hours later, when they got to the Swiss border at Basel, there was another black car identical for the one they were already in. The swap was made in silence, with only the briefest of nods suggesting that the two French men knew the two Austrians. The teenagers got in the back of the second jeep and were off on the second part of their journey.

'Fancy making conversation?' Carrie asked the man in the front passenger seat. The man remained quiet. 'Take that as a no then,' Carrie murmured sitting back. Rose and Oscar smiled.

It took seven and a half hours to drive along the Swiss border and into Austria. It was dark when the jeep finally stopped in a sleepy little village. The two men got out and indicated that the spies do the same. They looked around as they got out. It was too dark for them to see anything clearly, but pinpricks of light indicated streetlamps high above them, suggesting that the village climbed up one of the surrounding them. The two silent Austrian agents crossed to a wooden chalet with the downstairs lights still on and knocked. An old woman with curlers in her hair and wrinkles that looked like the strong mountain winds had pulled all her skin up and then dropped it so it quivered about her jaws. She gave the five a toothy smile and said, 'I was just wondering where you were. Come in and then I can shut up for the night.'

The five agents entered. They were standing in a cosy square room entirely made of honey-coloured wood with rugs on the floor and a couple of lights casting a warm glow about the room. A staircase on their left wound around the wall and up about their heads. The woman hobbled over to the desk next to the staircase and opened a heavy leather book. She thumbed through the pages before she found what she was looking for. 'MIA agents one and two for one night,' she read once she had put her reading glasses on. The two men nodded.

'MIA?' Carrie whispered to Rose.

'Military Intelligence Abroad,' Rose whispered back. 'They're usually foreign agents who only work part-time for MI9 doing little jobs like this. They're mostly used as translators.'

The old lady was talking again. 'MI9 agents Stewart, Cole and Gupta for one night?' she asked looking at the teenagers. She tutted and turned to the MIA agents. 'These are children!'

'I don't believe that it's your job to worry about that,' Oscar said before either of the MIA agents could say anything. They shifted uncomfortably.

The old lady tutted again. 'I speak only my concern, because I know what happened the last time MI9 trained children to be spies: no good.'

'You knew the Evens'?' Oscar asked before he could stop himself.

'Pretty much everyone around here knew the Evens family,' the old lady said, 'they were a much loved family.' Her eyes narrowed, 'how do you know about them?'

'Jessica Evens was a childhood friend,' Oscar said. That was partly true, he reasoned, Lizzie had proof that they used to be friends when they were really little, too little for Oscar to remember properly.

But the old woman's attitude had totally changed. She came forward and whispered, 'you know what happened to her? Do you know where she is now?'

'She's with her sister,' Oscar said slowly. The old lady closed her eyes.

'Dead?' she asked quietly. Oscar could see the MIA agents turn their heads slightly to listen to the conversation better. Oscar shook his head. The woman took a sharp intake of breath and hissed, 'but Elisabeth Evens is dead.'

Oscar smiled. 'No, she's not.'

Behind Oscar's back, Carrie muttered to Rose, 'isn't it wonderful when Oscar has a conversation that you can't understand.' Rose sighed and hissed back, 'you should have paid more attention in lessons.'

'I didn't do German,' Carrie said, 'I was already doing French. I thought that if I needed to go to Germany or anywhere else, I'll drag Oscar along to translate.'

Hearing Carrie speak snapped Oscar and the woman out of their staring match. The old lady gave Oscar a calculated look before shuffling back to the reception desk. She handed the MIA agents a key muttering, 'second floor, first door on the left.' The agents nodded and disappeared up the stairs. Rose stepped forward expecting to be given a key, but the woman gestured and said something.

'She wants us to come with her,' Oscar told the girls. The lady had disappeared through a door on the right and the agents followed her. They entered a wooden bar area with comfy looking armchairs clustered by a roaring fire opposite. Brass ornaments decorated the fireplace and furs hung from the far wall. A man behind the bar cleaning beer glasses nodded at them and gestured that they passed through a door behind him. The agents did so and found themselves descending stone stairs to the basement. The woman was waiting at one of the five doors leading away from the lower landing. The agents entered into a small circular room. There were a couple of benches, wires clung from the walls and on the wall on the left was a large screen, connected to a video talk with…

'Stark!' Rose said.

Chief Agent Stark nodded briskly. 'Sit down agents,' he said, 'and any cheek from you, Stewart, and you'll be on the first plane home!'

'Touchy?' Carrie queried quietly. Rose and Oscar snorted.

Stark didn't seem to hear her. 'Sit down agents,' he repeated sharply, 'I need to brief you.'

'What's going on?' Oscar asked, taking a seat on one of the benches, Rose and Carrie sitting either side of him.

Stark coughed. 'We receive a message from unknown agents, situated in Austria. Their identities are still unknown…'

'The Trio! Obvious!' Carrie said.

Stark ignored her and continued, 'but they expressed clearly their desire to have you join them and for some reason…' he stopped, deciding that what he was going to say wasn't appropriate. After a while, he continued. 'Apparently, they have been troubled by SKUL agents in the vicinity, and stated the need for back-up. You,' he added in case that wasn't clear enough. Judging correctly from the looks he got, he needn't have bothered. 'Their location now is unknown, but apparently they left a map with the hotel owners so you can collect that from them in the morning.'

Here was when Stark sat up straighter. Oh boy, the teenagers thought, he's going to give us instructions. Great.

'You are to aid the unknown team in defending their position against SKUL. If there is no possibility of doing this, and this is an order, you are report back to base that you need help and a team of expert MI9 agents will be sent out to help you.' He smiled smugly. The team rolled their eyes at the guess of who would be leading this team of "experts".

'That all?' Carrie asked.

Stark looked disgruntled. They heard him mutter something that sounded like, 'shouldn't talk to elder, more experienced like that,' before he said for them to hear clearly, 'all for now. Dismissed.'

'Good,' Carrie muttered as the screen switched itself off. They exited the conference room and climbed the stairs. The barman was still cleaning glasses. He nodded greetings as the spies emerged and grunted as Oscar asked where the old woman was. They tried the lobby and found no-one. However, a note on the desk (which Oscar translated) read, 'keys for room. Room 48, second floor. Breakfast at 8:00. Good night.' Beside the note was a hotel room key.

Their room was one of the last on the second floor. It was a pleasant little room with a double-single bunk bed – a double bed below a single. After a very quick debate, the girls persuaded Oscar to take the single, insisting that he didn't need to sleep on the sofa and they were fine with sharing a bed for one night.

As they lay awake in the darkness, Carrie asked, 'what do you think SKUL want with the Trio this time? Do you think Alex wants Jessica back? Assuming that she's with the Trio.'

'I doubt it,' Oscar said, 'I don't get the feeling that he cares much about family anymore…'

'I have a theory,' Rose said hesitantly, 'but I don't think that it's right.'

'We'll find out tomorrow,' Oscar said rolling over.

'Good night,' Rose said into the dark.

'G'night,' Carrie murmured, sleepily.

'Night,' Oscar muttered. With that, the three spies fell into sleepy silence. Somewhere in the dark distance, a wolf howled.

* * *

I know that this is quite slow, but it does speed up in other chapters.

I can't promise when I will next update as I have exams coming up. I have A-levels... but I love reviews (hint, hint)... please!


	4. The Abandoned Castle

Wow! I'm on a role! If this carries on, I'll be out of chapters (and ideas) before the summer.

To whomever-it-was-who-submitted-the-idea, it's a good one and maybe you should try it (although it is technically impossible for her to have an IQ of 400 as the "smartest" people according to MI High have an IQ of 222 - check 3 spies and a baby in the last series) and maybe I'm going to pinch the energy ring thing, but that's not what I need. I need small ideas like little mini-missions that they can do whilst working on a big mission overall, like what happened in the Trio. If anyone has any idea about small things, even if it is as simple as stealing some records from a bad guys house. It doesn't have to be too detailed, that means I can manipulate it.

But enough wittering, you just want to read, so don't let me stop you.

* * *

The sun was still low in the sky and threw the long shadows of the mountains like a cloak over the tiny village. Due to this, the girls struggled to wake Oscar the next morning. Carrie eventually started improvising with the flannels in the bathroom and shortly afterwards Oscar was wide awake, slightly grouchy and quite wet. After putting the bed linin by the window to dry, they breakfasted, surrounded by the other early risers amongst the other guests. The MIA agents passed the open door of the dining room and paused long enough to give the three teenagers a brisk nod of greeting before departing towards the hotel entrance.

'Can't say I'm going to miss them,' Carrie commented quietly, pouring syrup onto her pancakes.

They met the old lady in the reception area where she presented them with three heavy-looking rucksacks full of provisions and accompanied by sleeping bags. 'Presents from the two gentlemen you arrived with,' she told Oscar. 'Are you planning on hiking?'

'That's right,' Oscar replied, hoisting the bag onto his back and finding (much to his relief) that it was not as heavy as he had thought, 'don't know how long we'll be…'

'I suppose you might need a map if you'll be heading into the mountains,' the old woman said carefully.

'Yes,' Oscar said slowly, 'particularly as we don't know where we're going…'

With her eyes still fixed on Oscar, the woman reached behind the counter and retrieved a weathered booklet. 'Would something like this help?' she asked holding it out to Oscar.

Oscar reached out and took the map in his fingertips. 'It would be much appreciated,' he said. The woman released it. Oscar took a quick look at it and slid it into a pocket. Then he turned to the girls and said in English, 'let's go.' They nodded and strode out of the hotel, leaving the old woman staring slightly sadly after them.

* * *

'Is it much further?' Rose muttered, 'my feet are beginning to ache.'

'I told you that you needed to get into better shape,' Carrie said over her shoulder. Oscar, who was between the two girls, could sympathise with Rose as he too was beginning to feel the strain in this calves.

'Come on, Carrie,' he called to Carrie who was so far ahead it was a short miracle that she had heard Rose at all (then again it did echo a lot in the mountains), 'we've been walking all morning and it's now' –he checked his watch- 'half one in the afternoon. I think it's time for a lunch break.'

Carrie was about to disagree, but she could see that her fellow teammates were in pain so skipped lightly over the uneven surface saying, 'alright, but ten minutes at the most.'

Rose slumped onto a rock next to Oscar who groaned as he sank onto another. Carrie perched on a nearby ledge and they all rummaged around in their rucksacks for sandwiches that the hotel manager had reassured them she had packed. Oscar found them in his rucksack side pocket and handed them out.

Carrie got the map out as they ate. She traced her finger over the route that they had just taken and what they have left to walk until she reached the point where a rectangle was marked which they assumed meant the castle. Oscar leaned back against the rock-face behind him. 'How much further have we got to walk?'

'It's another day's trek at least,' Carrie said, 'if we carry on through the night then we should get there tomorrow morning.'

'We are not walking through the night,' Rose said firmly.

Oscar held up his hands. 'Maybe we can compromise,' he said. 'I agree with Rose, Carrie, in the sense that we can't walk through the night. But Rose,' he said, turning to her, 'we should try and get as far as possible today.'

Rose grumbled a short reply. Carrie leapt to her feet. 'In that case, what are we doing sitting around?' she said, 'come on!' Her teammates moaned but got to their feet and followed her all the same.

It was dark when they finally settled down for sleep. Carrie, who had a little bit more energy than her teammates, offered to do the first watch. Oscar asked what they needed a watch for. Both girls looked at him as if he was an idiot.

'Because,' Carrie said in the patronising, patient voice parents often used with their children, 'the Trio called for our help because they had spotted SKUL in the Alps.'

'And I don't fancy a repeat of what happened in June,' Rose said, thumping the pillow area of her sleeping bag to try and find the comfiest bit of soil. Oscar sighed and positioned himself with his back to Carrie. He heard her move over to him and then she bent over him and whispered in his ear, 'wake you in two hours for the next watch.' Oscar swatted at her absent-mindedly and Carrie moved away, giggling.

At sunrise, Rose, who took the final shift, woke the other two and after a very quick breakfast, they continued with their hike across the Alps.

* * *

The sun was high and gazing down with a fierce glare. They came to a stop and rested in the shadow of an overhanging rock. Carrie left her friends to share the water whilst she went ahead. She returned grinning.

'We've done it!' she said with a huge smile across her face. They all rounded the corner and there, built into the cliff-face, was the castle.

Or to be more exact, the ruin of what had once been an impressive fortress. But now, the roof was missing tiles, the walls were riddled with holes and an entire section of the building had fallen away with the cliff, leaving the far right corner of the castle open to the elements. Creepers had crept up and woven their branches into the parapet and their roots into the foundations. The two towers were still intact, although the taller one was threatening to crumble on one side.

The spies approached it slowly. 'There's not much left now that could be called habitable,' Carrie commented.

The others just nodded. They advanced upon the rotting doors and gently pushed one of them open. The door swung inwards with a high squeak. Oscar went in first, checking constantly for booby-traps or tripwires. When they were certain that nothing was going to attack them, they ventured into the main hall.

The main hall was the prime example of how the majesty of the fort had disintegrated into ruin. It was large, rectangular with marble pillars running along the walls either side of them and a high vaulted ceiling. A main staircase was straight ahead of them, dividing in the middle, one arm curving to the next floor, the other reaching higher to the floor above. The floor was intricately tiled and the medieval sculpturing spoke highly of the craftsmen who must have travelled so far to work on the castle.

But decay was starting to seep in; weathering the edges, causing cracks in the pillars and stripping the room of colour. Ivy was climbing the nearest column, leaning through a hole in the wall. In the other wall, a large gap looked out into open air and a cold mountain wind was blowing through into the hall. The door swung forlornly back on its hinges until it met its partner.

The spies stood in the middle of the entrance hall staring at everything. With the splintering of stone, a piece of the banister fell apart from the whole and joined the rubble on the floor. Slowly – Oscar leading, the girls following – the three moved to the foot of the stairs and began to climb. On the way they passed tiles that had fallen from the ceiling and the remains of an angel statuette that had snapped from where it had been reaching out to God and had come crashing back to Earth.

They paused at the divide, wondering whether they should split up. Eventually they decided against it and chose the lower branch, moving on to the first floor. Everywhere they went they were reminded of the poor conditions of the castle. Then they reached the right back wing of the castle of which only a yawning gap remained. They were left little choice but to turn around and head back the way they had come to try and find a way to the other side of the floor.

It was Rose who found the passageway. They were passing one of the only intact statues, and she wasn't quite sure how it happened, but she must have brushed against something and a section of the wall opened up beside her, revealing a flight of steps leading down into the lower levels. Oscar and Carrie were a little sceptical about letting Rose go alone, but Rose was convinced. If this was the castle the Trio mentioned their "creator" lived in, she reasoned, his work must surely have been in the basement area. Oscar offered to come with her, but Rose insisted that they explored the other floors and find where the Trio were residing. 'The two of you will cover it much faster,' she said as she began to descend, and then as an afterthought, 'good luck.'

Carrie and Oscar continued exploring the first floor and, when they had been to one end and back and found nothing, they returned to the great hall to ascend to the next floor. The end of the main corridor leading from the stairs ended in a sudden drop as it covered the area where the section of castle had disappeared. But when they turned the first corner, Carrie hurried to a pair of double doors in the middle of the aisle and paused.

'This must be the master bedroom,' she said in an excited whisper. The doors certainly suggested that level of grandness. Oscar could imagine what was on the other side, when he heard something.

He froze. Carrie had gone suddenly still too. She had heard it then. They glanced at the doors.

There it was again. There was definitely someone on the other side.

'Do you think it's them?' Oscar asked quietly.

'Only one way to find out,' Carrie whispered back. She positioned herself in front of the doors. Oscar knew from her pose what she was about to do. He stood beside her. 'Ready?' Carrie said softly.

'Ready,' he replied.

'On three then,' Carrie said, 'one… two… three!'

She lashed out with her foot, hitting the doors right in the middle. They banged open. The pair entered quickly.

But the room was empty.

One quick look confirmed their suspicions that this was the master bedroom. The four-poster bed was the centre piece of the room with its faded red velvet hanging and embroidered quilts, still there and covered in dust. To one side, a tapestry that had survived the MI9 raid still hung, dulled with age. A chest sat beneath it, carved exquisitely from a dark coloured wood. The same sort of wood looked like it had been used to make the rest of the furniture: a tall, broad chest of drawers that stood alongside the four-poster; three delicate, spindly bedside tables that hid the plug socket (wires, the same colour at the stone, snaked away, along and down through a gap between two stone tiles); a hat stand that stood just to the left of the door; and an antique wardrobe showed the spies something that they had already known: that this room had been used at least in the last century.

What they didn't know was that it was still occupied.

Oscar didn't see much of the master bedroom because, seconds after entering, a fist swung out of nowhere and collided with his chest. A foot kicked him in the side and he fell. As he did, he grabbed the wrist of his assailant, trying to pull them with him, but they slipped through his grip. They swept his legs from him and he was down. He could hear Carrie putting up a fight with whomever she was up against. Then he turned to face his opponent.

There was an amazed pause.

Then Lizzie lowered her fist. 'Oscar!' was all she could say.

* * *

Yes, of course, it had to be.

And that's where I'll leave it. Until next time. (Unless someone gives me an amazing idea which will inspire me to write the next chapter a lot sooner)


	5. Update

I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I've wanted to update for weeks, but never got round to finishing this chapter. I will try and update sooner though and I think I have some idea for the plot of the last fic in this series... but that's for me to talk about later.

Does anyone still watch the new series? Did you see the last one with Oscar's mum in it? That really mucked up my plot for a while until I worked out how to incorporate it and now all it's done is improve it!

* * *

'Oscar!' Lizzie repeated in disbelief. And then she smiled. 'Oscar!' she said again and dragged him into a tight hug. 'Oh Oscar it's so good to see you again!' She released him, beamed at him and then twigged what was going on beside them. She glanced sideways and then dived in between the fighting couple shouting, 'Luke! Luke! Stop; that's Carrie!'

The two instantly froze. Oscar saw a tall blonde boy who looked fairly similar to him, but with curlier hair and tauter muscles, stop in the middle of giving Carrie a suffocating headlock. 'Oh,' he said and released her. Carrie staggered away from him coughing. The boy shifted uncomfortably and said apologetically, 'err... sorry.'

'Ok,' Carrie coughed.

'What are you guys doing here?' Lizzie asked as Oscar moved towards to check that Carrie was alright, 'I thought that MI9 were giving you a break?'

There was a pause. 'What do you mean "What are you doing here"?' Carrie asked, 'you asked for us!'

Lizzie looked confused. 'W-what?' she stammered, 'w-we didn't…' Realisation spread across her face and she turned to glare at Luke. 'You…'

Luke backed away. 'We thought it was best to have backup!' he said hurriedly, 'with SKUL sighted and you know…' but Lizzie cut across him.

'"We thought it was best",' she copied, 'so the others knew about this.' She glared at Luke and then a thought struck her. 'Where's Rose?' she asked, turning back to Oscar and Carrie.

'We found a passageway,' Oscar told her, 'Rose decided to explore where it went.'

Lizzie and Luke glanced at one another as a crash echoed down the corridors to them. 'Uh oh,' Luke muttered and sprinted out of the double doors, swiftly followed by Lizzie. Oscar and Carrie shared an anxious look and then raced after them.

The two members of the Trio dashed down the stairs into the main hall, both jumped the banister beside the divide and then ran into the shadows behind in. when Oscar drew level with them, he discovered a second set of stairs leading downwards. These were not as steep as the steps that Rose found and looked a lot more worn. Clean also, dust and cobwebs had been cleared aside. Lizzie was waiting at the top of these steps. As soon as Oscar and Carrie appeared, she disappeared down the stairs.

Oscar and Carrie descended into a low wide chamber filled with filling cabinets and the right wall had deteriorated. Papers had been taken out and thrown back in or scattered around. Oscar paused to study on of them. Some depicted delicate instruments or mechanical experiments; others were covered in a tiny, thin, scrawling writing. Voices could be heard from up ahead. They continued to the far side of the room and discovered another staircase leading them to the lowest part of the castle.

Oscar and Carrie arrived to see Lizzie and Rose greeting each other warmly. The boys stood to one side, smiling but looking slightly left out and in the shadows on the far side, another figure moved sensitively. Rose joined her fellow teammates as they entered and grinned. 'All together, once again.'

Lizzie turned back to the boys. 'Right, now we're all together, are you going to explain to me why they received a message asking them to come?'

The boys shifted and didn't look at her. 'I asked them to ask for backup,' someone said delicately and from out of the shadows emerged Jessica. Lizzie's expression immediately softened.

'Why didn't you tell me?'

'I asked the boys to.' They both turned to the guys who looked at one another. Their expressions of mixed panic and guilt were so comical that Oscar, Carrie and Jessica all started to giggle. Only Lizzie and Rose managed to keep straight faces.

'Why did you ask them to come?' Lizzie asked, directed the question at the boys, gesturing towards Oscar, Rose and Carrie.

'We didn't specify for them,' Luke said in his defence. 'It was MI9's choice to send them.'

'But you would have limited their choices,' Lizzie pointed out, 'wouldn't you?'

Luke knew that he had been backed into a corner. 'Yeah,' he admitted, shamefaced.

Rose caught Lizzie's attention. 'We're here now,' she said, 'that's what matters. Why don't you explain what's going on? Why are you here?'

Lizzie glared at the boys as if daring them to speak. When neither of them did, she sighed and said in a resigned voice, 'I suppose you won't leave now you're here.' She looked around the dust filled, cobweb ridden room and said, 'do you want the explanations here, or somewhere a little cleaner?'

'Is anywhere else better?' Carrie asked, wrinkling her nose, 'I mean: this place looks like it hasn't been lived in for a long time.'

'It hasn't,' Lizzie confirmed. She paused, staring at something on the wall, lost in thought. Finally she dragged herself out of her memories to turn to her teammates. 'I'll explain to them if you keep hunting.' Jessica agreed immediately and dragged the guys back towards the upper floor. Lizzie watched them go and then led the three spies over to a cluster of chairs that the Trio had salvaged from the first floor. They sat down and Lizzie started to explain.

'Do you know what this place is?' she asked as soon as they were all seated.

'This was the castle you told us about,' Carrie said.

'Yeah,' Lizzie said. 'In this very room, I met my parents.' There was an awkward pause. Lizzie turned to Oscar and Rose. 'Were you filled in on what we told Carrie and the others at the start of the summer?'

'Sort of,' Rose said vaguely.

Lizzie bit her bottom lip for a moment before speaking. 'The professor who lived here was called Anthony Schmitz. He was a Nazi sympathiser and I'm sure you can look him up on the MI9 database for more detail, unless the boys wiped it that is. Anyway, he wanted to create the perfect human using chemicals and here we are,' she held up her arms and Oscar noticed something for the first time, a silvery slash across her right wrist. Lizzie noticed him looking and lowered her arms. 'It was in here that he did it. He was in this room when the MI9 team my parents were leading broke in. he abandoned his experiments to save his own skin but he didn't make it out of the building without getting caught. He was arrested and my parents were free to adopt me.'

'How did he do it?' Rose asked.

'Come and see,' Lizzie offered, getting up and leading them to the far side of the room. She pulled back a torn plastic curtain to reveal a machine covered in layers of grim and dust.

At first glance, the machine looked like a scorpion poised to strike. The largest part was a rectangular, uncomfortable looking plate with leather straps, so worn that Oscar could snap them off easily. This rested on two T-shaped legs. Most of the machine was situated at the head of the rectangle. A bulky box of gears, levers, buttons and one very old computer screen. A mechanical arm reached up out of this. Wires had been torn out of it where they showed. Oscar realised that Lizzie probably was behind this. Leaning over them menacingly was the point of the arm. It did look like the sting of a scorpion, round metal ending in a long, sharp syringe. There was no guessing what that was for. Oscar noticed Lizzie clutching her right arm like she never had before and put his arm around her comfortingly.

'You can't remember it, can you?'

'I wasn't old enough,' Lizzie said sadly, 'I know it hurt though because it did for the first few years of my life. That's my earliest memory. Alex was about five and was teasing me. I don't remember him teasing. I remember the pain of hitting back at him. It hurt me more than it hurt him.'

Oscar smiled. He would have laughed, but this wasn't the type of subject you laughed at. Rose, who was standing at the head of the machine, turned to Lizzie, 'it's not as impressive as I thought it might be. Scary and slightly intimidating, but quite old fashioned. I mean, look at this screen.' She tapped the glass screen with her fingernail.

Lizzie grinned and unclipped her torch from her belt. 'If you think that's bad,' she said, switching it on and directing the beam over Rose's shoulder, 'that is the generator, computer bank and database for this thing. The databank holds only the instructions for the machine! Although, the generator still works.' They turned and stared at the three large blocks filling the wall space behind them.

'Big!' Carrie said eventually.

Lizzie turned the torch off and reattached it to her belt. 'You must remember that this is the very early eighties, possibly even the late seventies, when computers and this kind of technology were rare, big and bulky. In fact, this is futuristic equipment to them! SKUL will probably update it.'

'What has SKUL got to do with this?' Oscar asked.

'I said that professor Schmitz was doing deals with SKUL,' Lizzie continued, moving back to the central area, 'and MI9 suspect that he was preparing to give them the details of his experiments. Fortunately, MI9 arrested him before he could. Unfortunately…' she paused.

'There was this guy the group my parents brought in, Paul Batson. They would have trusted him to the ends of the earth. He was really old friend; I think he was even there when they got married. He… did an Alex on them. That is the only thing I liked about the way Alex killed Mum and Dad. They will never know that they were betrayed again for the same reasons. He envied us. He liked the idea of perfection, like Alex. When he realised that my parents would not reason with him, did not like his ideas, he stole the plans for the machine and took them to SKUL.'

There was a shocked silence. 'SKUL have the machine plans,' Rose said, horrified.

'That's just what we need,' Carrie groaned, 'perfect SKUL agents.'

'What are we doing here then?' Oscar said, heading for the exit, 'why are we standing in this grotty old castle when SKUL could be building that machine any moment?'

'SKUL have the plans for the machine,' Lizzie countered, 'but they don't have the most vital part. The machine is not important, it just ensures the survival of the victim and judges things like concentration, volume and other simple things that are needed to be measured in order for the victim to survive. If SKUL had the formula, _that_ would be disastrous. All they would need then is a syringe, and a good chemist. But they don't have the secret formula. Paul only grabbed the plans for the machine. They couldn't find the formula. That's why we're here. To find before SKUL.'

'And SKUL know this?' Carrie asked.

'They will now,' Lizzie answered. 'I bet they were really miffed when Paul turned up with this brilliant machine but no formula. But Alex would have known that the formula was here. He couldn't find it though. He didn't know where to start looking. It is true that if he had just searched long and hard he might have found it. He might have found the formula years ago. He did have a ten year head start. We're lucky that Alex has become more fixated with finding and finishing me off. I think he believes he can fully enjoy his powers, if he ever gets them, if I'm out of the picture.'

'Really lucky,' Carrie said sarcastically, 'I suppose he's given up waiting for you to die soon then.'

Lizzie grinned, 'particularly as he has just discovered my new founded youth.' Oscar frowned. Something was off and he wasn't just talking about the smell in the air. Lizzie was keeping something from them, something she didn't think important to them, but was probably important to her, judging from the way she was clutching at the pendant around her neck, her last reminder of her adopted mother.

'That's not the only reason though, is it?' Oscar asked. Lizzie froze, mid-grin, and swivelled to face him. 'It isn't, is it?'

Lizzie's eyes narrowed shrewdly, but she was still grinning. 'You're right,' she said slowly.

'Personal,' Oscar suggested when Lizzie didn't say anymore.

'Very,' Lizzie snapped not unkindly.

'What is it?' Oscar said quietly. Rose and Carrie stayed silent, keeping out of eyeshot of the couple. They knew that if one of them could coax this out of Lizzie, it was going to be Oscar.

'We're…' Lizzie murmured in a voice that would have been lost if the cold hard stone wall did not amplify every word said, 'we're… we're here to discover who we are.' She took a deep breath and said in a slightly louder voice, 'our real identities. That's what's taking so long.'

'We'll help,' Rose volunteered immediately turning to her fellow teammates.

Carrie did not look very pleased at this prospect, but Oscar said, 'course we will.'

'There's no need!' they all looked round at Jessica who was standing at the bottom of the steps holding a thick wad of files in her arm. Although she was speaking to all of them, her eyes were locked with Lizzie's. 'We've found them.'

* * *

Like I said, I will try and update! Promise!

Keep the reviews up!


	6. Veiw from the top

Was doing a timeline just now and realised the dates in this chapter don't add up by a year and a couple of months. Did no-one else spot that? It would make the Trio a year younger than I claimed they would be when they are re-aged. So I've corrected the dates, and if anyone actually notices then great!

* * *

The three spies turned excitedly to one another. In the middle of grinning at his fellow teammates, Oscar noticed that Lizzie had gone rigid. She was breathing deeply and appeared to only just be keeping everything together. Jessica crossed to her sister and tentatively passed her the file. Lizzie stared at it for a while before leaving the group chatting by the staircase to sit in a dust covered seat on the far side to read. Oscar started to go to her, but Jessica pushed him back.

'Give her time to read it first,' she said. She looked over Oscar's shoulder and beamed. Turning, Oscar saw that they had been joined by the other two Trio members.

'It's weird,' Luke was saying, 'it's like reading about a totally different person. Listen! Boy 08: weight, 8 lbs 5oz. Birth name, Benjamin Lucas. Passport registered D/O/B, approx. 27/03/81. Nationality, American! I'm American!'

'Is that why you're a little dim at times?' Max mumbled. He was leaning against the entrance to the stairs, studying a photograph intently.

'I'm not dim!' Luke said crossly.

'Of course you're not,' Jessica said soothingly, sensing that Luke was about the snap out at Max whom she frowned at. 'So how did you come to be here when you could have been in sunny California or wherever your family were based?'

Luke frowned and returned to his file. 'Doesn't say where they are from exactly,' he muttered, turning the pages slowly. 'There are a lot of test results here. "Promising!" has been written across the top of this page. That's nice to know.' He looked over the top of it at Max and asked slightly teasingly. 'So where does smartalec originate from then?'

Max cleared his throat and stood upright to read. 'Boy 14: weight, 7lbs 1oz. Birth name, Piers Blanc. D/O/B, 4/12/81. Nationality, French.'

'That explains… nothing really,' Luke said. 'You weren't the best at languages were you? Had no speciality for your mother tongue.'

'Probably because I heard none of it as I was growing up,' Max said, 'see here: D/O/A, 4/12/81…'

'D/O/A?' Carrie asked.

'Date of acquiesce,' Max explained, 'see the date? I was brought here the day I was born.'

'Explains why you were so weedy then,' Luke commented, now searching his documents for the date, 'hey, found it! D/O/A, 25/12/81. I was snatched on Christmas day!'

'Your poor parents,' Jessica said, horrified. 'How?'

'Uh…' Luke said, scanning the pages for a clue about the answer, 'um… here! Nanny disguise works. What does that mean?' He shifted the file to flick through it and as he did something dropped from between the pages.

'Look at this,' Rose said, picking it up, 'it's a newspaper clipping. I can't read German.'

'Give it here,' Oscar offered. Rose handed it to him and he translated, '"The Nanny Stole my Baby! American couple return to hotel to find the nanny had run off with their firstborn son! Police are on the lookout for an old woman and young child." Didn't have much hope of finding you here did they?'

Luke took the piece of paper back from Oscar and stared at the couple pictured and the baby photo inserted next to them. 'Maybe I'll contact them when we get back to England. Let them know I'm alright.'

'I don't think my parents will believe that I'm their son,' Max said unhappily, 'according to this, I was half dead when he took me. I'm looking through the medical results he did. I'm a little miracle if I'm reading these correctly. Hole in my heart, asthma, weak bone structure. He was expecting me to die on him at any moment. He has the death form half filled out in preparation.' He waved a sick green sheet of A5 paper at them. 'Pity is, apparently, I have a twin sister. Schmitz actually comments that he wishes that he snatched her rather than the practically dead one.'

'That's sad,' Carrie said.

Oscar glanced across at Lizzie who was obscured by shadows. He could see something hunched in the chair Lizzie was in, leaning over the desk. It looked like she was either crying or reading intensely. Then Jessica caught his eye and shook her head slightly.

The boys were still joking about Max returning to France and revealing himself to his family. 'I'm going to have to age if I want to meet my parents. What can I say? Hi mum and dad! I know that you're ancient now by I've had to go through puberty twice thanks to this really weird gifts that an experiment done on me as a babe left me and a mate with. This means I'm dating a girl…' he did some calculations in his head, 'twelve years younger than me. Not too bad when you think about it, but still, I don't think she minds.'

Jessica laughed and punched Luke's shoulder. 'Shut up! I'm going to be eighteen in November so there's an eleven year gap, dumbo!'

'So you two are dating?' Carrie said incredulously, glancing between them.

'Yeah, I suppose we are,' Luke said with a grin.

'Since when?' Carrie demanded.

'I don't know,' Luke said, glancing at Jessica for confirmation.

'We had just visited the chalet in which our parents died,' Jessica recounted, 'I know it was extremely painful for Lizzie, but it was hard for me too. They had left it exactly the way they had found it afterwards, broken and rubble everywhere. Luke thought that the perfect moment to ask me.'

'You asked me!' Luke objected.

'And is Lizzie alright with that?' Rose asked, automatically lowering her voice.

'She asked us not to start dating properly until we get back to England,' Jessica replied, dropping her voice to a whisper too, not that it made much difference. In many ways it made everything she said sound ten times clearer as the echoes did not interfere with what was being said as much.

They all glanced in Lizzie direction to check that she had heard. She hadn't moved from the last time Oscar had looked over. Luke cleared his throat and raised his voice. 'Earth calling Lizzie!' he called, 'come back to reality for a moment will you?'

No response. Luke frowned. He wasn't the only one. 'Lizzie?' Oscar called, 'are you alright?'

'Lizzie?' Jessica said. 'I didn't mean it. Sister?'

Rose suddenly inhaled sharply and hurried across the room. She grabbed what looked like Lizzie's shoulder and tugged. The spare plastic curtain which had been shaped into a human form crunched in Rose's grip and the stool which had been placed beneath it to keep it from collapsing toppled to the ground.

'Lizzie!' Jessica cried in a panic.

Luke put his arms reassuringly around her and murmured relaxingly, 'it's ok. She'll be fine. She's probably just gone somewhere to have a bit of privacy. You know how she is about this entire family thing.' Jessica nodded, but did not look totally reassured.

Oscar thought this puzzling. He would have expected an outburst like this from Lizzie, but from Jessica? Maybe he had underestimated how important her newly discovered family was to her. 'She will have stayed within the castle,' he said, directing this at Jessica primarily, 'should we split up and look for her?'

'I really should keep looking for the formula,' Max muttered, 'the sooner we find it, the sooner we can leave this ruin behind us.'

'Agreed,' Rose said, 'I'll stay with Ora- Max – and look for this formula. You can go and look for Lizzie.'

'Sounds like a plan,' Luke said. He led Jessica across the room to the hidden staircase. Sure enough, the sliding door stood ajar. 'She went this way.'

'Of course she did,' Carrie said as they began to climb the steep stairs. 'We were by the other stairs, weren't we?'

Jessica stopped and looked back at Carrie scornfully. 'She could have walked through the wall.' She turned back to Luke for support. 'Why did she open the door? She didn't need to and we might have heard her.'

Luke shook his head. 'She's been practicing on blocking sound so we might not have heard her. About the door, I think she wants someone to go after her.' Momentarily, his gaze shifted over Jessica's shoulder and met Oscar's. Oscar knew what he was suggesting.

They emerged on the first floor. Luke suggested that Oscar and Carrie went to the second floor, but they both disagreed. They argued that Lizzie would not have stopped on the first floor. Luke begrudgingly agreed and so they trooped back to the main hall and up to the second level. They searched every room they came to but there was no sign of Lizzie. They passed the master bedroom, Luke putting his head in briefly to check that Lizzie wasn't there, before continuing.

At the corner of the left wing, Carrie unearthed the second hidden staircase, although it was apparent from the cleared cobwebs that someone else had passed through recently. They all climbed to the third floor. This was smaller than the other two. Just along from them was a second staircase. By sticking his head out of the window at the end of the corridor, Luke confirmed that this staircase climbed up the smaller tower. 'Which means there must be a second staircase going up the taller tower,' he said.

Oscar thought. 'Do you and Jessica want to check up there and Carrie and I will go in search of this second staircase?' he suggested.

Luke shrugged and glanced sideways at Jessica. She nodded once, took Luke's hand and they left. When they had gone, Oscar turned to Carrie.

'Lizzie will be in the taller tower,' he said confidently. Carrie didn't disagree. Oscar was the better judge of Lizzie's character after spending practically all of last year hanging out with her. Oscar shifted uncomfortably. 'Do you mind if I continue alone? I just think Lizzie would prefer it if one of us turned up and…' and she'd prefer to see me. That's what he meant to conclude, but he just couldn't say it.

Carrie understood him though. 'It's ok,' she said, 'I'll go and help Rose and Max.'

'Cool,' Oscar grinned. He watched Carrie leave before walking in the opposite direction and turning the corner at the end of the passageway. Just as he suspected, the second stairwell was on the other side of the floor. Oscar ascended, nervous about the missing chunks in the walls.

Lizzie didn't look round when he entered. She was staring out of the window at the sun which was setting behind the mountains in a glorious array of rose pink and golden orange staining the peaceful sky blue. Only when Oscar came and stood beside her at the arched window did Lizzie glance sideways to check it was him. Comforted, she continued staring out of the window.

The sun disappeared completely behind the nearest mountain, throwing a long shadow over the castle, did Oscar choose speak. 'I'll admit one thing about Europe,' he said calmly, 'their sunsets are beautiful.'

'Hmm,' Lizzie said, noncommittally. There was a pause as Oscar studied her face. She had been crying. He glanced at her hand which was playing with the pendent, a gift from her mother. It was an oval crystal, white in colour, circled in gold. It had been shaped slightly to fit the oval outside it, but other than that the jewellers had left it as it had naturally been found, not quite spherical.

'What's wrong?' he asked. Lizzie didn't answer, but her fingers found and entwined his with hers. Oscar glanced back at the darkened room. It was bare and smaller than Oscar had anticipated and over by the opposite wall was Lizzie's file. Despite having located it, Oscar did not go over and retrieve it. 'Is it bad?'

'It's painful,' Lizzie said. Oscar noticed now that she had clenched in her left hand a piece of paper. He dared not ask what it was though; Lizzie would tell him in her own time.

'I think my parent's read it,' Lizzie said at length. Oscar gazed at her, slightly confused, so Lizzie added, 'the Evens'.'

'What makes you think that?' Oscar asked.

Lizzie let go of his hand (which made Oscar feel something that he could not quite place) and crossed to her file. She picked it up delicately and opened it. 'Girl 11,' she read, 'weight, 7lbs 5oz. Birth name: Elizabeth Marshal.' She looked up at Oscar. He nodded understandingly.

'You think that they read it in order to discover your name,' he clarified.

'I suppose they needed it,' Lizzie said, 'for the adoption documents.'

'If they read your file,' Oscar said slowly, not fully understanding something, 'why didn't they find out who your real parents are and return you to them?'

Tears began to leak out of Lizzie's hazel eyes and dripped onto her black jacket. 'They couldn't Oscar,' she choked, 'they're dead. Died in an avalanche.'

'I know your parents died in an avalanche,' Oscar said. It was Lizzie's turn to look bewildered, before realisation dawned on her face.

'No, Oscar!' she said, 'my birth parents died in an avalanche. They were driving through the mountains when it hit. I was pulled by the professor from the wreckage of the car shortly before it…' she faltered.

Oscar didn't need her to complete the sentence. He took hold of her and pulled her into a tight hug. Lizzie let herself be pulled in and buried her face in Oscar's chest. Oscar rested his head on top of hers and read over her shoulder the rest of her profile which she had discarded.

"Birth name, Elizabeth Marshal. D/O/B, approx. 5/6/81. Nationality, Welsh. D/O/A, 12/10/81. Parents dead." And then written by someone else underneath this was, "adopted by Isaac and Jenna Evens 3/2/82." A note in a similar hand obscured the rest of the text. Oscar recognised it as the paper Lizzie had been clutching.

'What is that?' he asked. Lizzie didn't stop him as he unwrapped his arms from around her and picked the letter up, for that was what he realised it to be. He glanced at Lizzie for her consent. As she neither gave it nor objected, Oscar thought this meant that he could read it.

"_Dearest Lizzie,_

_I do not know under what circumstances you may read this. I only hope that you have someone there for you to lean on if you succumb to tears. I would wish that to be either your sister or your brother or someone else of importance to you. I hope you find that someone, who will love you as we love you, for every detail about you, even that which you have not fully wished upon yourself._

_I am writing this to you in the understanding that I may not have long left with you. Ever since SKUL discovered our identities, your father and I have been vigilant, expecting an attack at any moment. But I fear, and my intuition is hardly ever wrong according to your father, that our end will come from an unseen source. And what I fear most is that it may come from within the family. If you are reading this, then I expect that it may have come to pass._

_If this is the case, I urge you to try and stay true to the family love that we have always had for you in the hope that you three will share it equally amongst you when we are gone, like you did when you were younger. If I do not get a chance to tell you when you visit in a couple of months then I want you to know one thing._

_We are so proud of you. We love you for who you are. And you should try and be no-one else. Love your sisters and brother like we have always taught you to. Be true to yourself. And remember that there will always be people who love you. We will always love you._

_I wish I could be your real mother but I am just as proud and care for you as if I was._

_I love you._

_Your ever caring mother, Jenna Evens. Xxx_"

Oscar folded the letter and gazed at Lizzie. She gazed back helplessly, toying with the pendent around her neck. Without saying anything, they moved closer to hug again. Lizzie was again crying.

Oscar pulled away sooner than he wanted. Lizzie was taken aback, momentarily hurt before she asked, 'what's wrong?'

Oscar pointed out of the window. Lizzie turned. They could see figures moving towards them in the deepening twilight. Figures dressed to camouflage them against the darkness, but who moved so clumsily that they upset the slightest stone.

'Not more back up, I presume,' Oscar said. Lizzie eyes were fixed on the lead figure, moving much more stealthily, more confidently than the others.

'Alex,' she whispered. She clenched her hands, scrunching her mother's letter which she didn't realise that she had taken off Oscar.

'SKUL,' Oscar hissed, sliding his hand into Lizzie's so she didn't ruin her last reminder of her mother. 'Come on, we need to warn the others.'

'He's not doing this again to me,' Lizzie said hoarsely and without warning Oscar, the floor opened up and they plunged downwards.

* * *

I'll write again soon.


	7. Oh, Brother!

I hate A-levels. They take up too much time, time I could spend writing. I've fallen behind on nearly all my other fics because I'm having to be selective due to my A-levels and so I've chosen this one. You should love that.

Sorry but I don't know when the next update will be because of exams, but bare with me. I might be able to get this done before this year is out. And then you might have to wait for the last fic.

On a lighter note, I've finished plotting my last fic (yay)! I've reworked it so it fits with the TV series' finale and I hope you enjoy it when I get around to writing it.

* * *

Oscar hit the ground heavily, but Lizzie landed on the balls of her feet and was through the wall before Oscar could call her back. Groaning, Oscar climbed to his feet and ran through the door after her, snatching up the fallen file as he passed. He emerged on the second floor corridor. He could hear Lizzie racing towards the entrance, but also people approaching from his right. Luke and Jessica hurried around the corner.

'We heard something…' Jessica started before getting distracted, 'why are covered in dirt?'

'Lizzie decided to perform her plummeting-elevator-trick without warning me,' Oscar said, dusting himself absentmindedly, 'but she had reason. Alex has found us.'

'Alex,' Jessica repeated in a faint whisper. She clung to Luke and turned to look up at him. 'Here?'

Luke kept his eyes fixed on Oscar. 'Where's Lizzie?' Oscar pointed behind him in the direction that Lizzie went. Luke began to run and Jessica and Oscar followed. All the while, Luke murmured, 'Lizzie, don't. Please Lizzie, keep your head on.'

They dashed into the entrance hall. Just below them, at the point where the stairway split, stood Lizzie. She was glaring at the great doors that were rattling on their hinges as the SKUL agents the other side tried to batter their way in. Luke skidded down the steps to Lizzie's side.

'Think before you act, okay?' was all he could say before the doors were smashed open and the SKUL agents poured in like a multitude of ants.

'Think,' Lizzie said coldly, 'don't I always?'

Luke opened his mouth to reply but Lizzie dived down the last remaining steps. As she straightened up, the ground beneath her seemed to come with her. The separated earth formed disks in her hands which she threw. The first one collided with a group of SKUL guards, but the second disintegrated as it reached the edge of Lizzie's manipulative range. Not disheartened, Lizzie kicked up balls of stone and launched them at the retreating group, only to watch her creations fall short.

Back at the split, Luke muttered, 'thinking? Yeah right.' The three spies descended to group level and Luke caught hold of Lizzie's arm as she paused for breath, a dangerous move in Oscar's eyes.

'Lizzie, calm down,' Luke ordered.

'I am calm,' Lizzie growled.

'There was no need,' Luke said calmly, 'they haven't done anything yet.'

'No,' Lizzie snapped, roughly pulling her arm out of Luke's grasp and pointing towards the entrance, 'but he has.' They all looked.

Leaning against one of the giant doorframes, Lizzie and Jessica's elder brother smiled. 'Ah, at last,' he called across to them, 'dearest sister. Are you not going to welcome me in?'

'You know I'd never,' Lizzie shouted back.

'Who said I was talking to you?' Alex sneered, 'I was talking to my real sister.'

Behind Luke, Jessica took a deep breath and moved to stand beside Lizzie. 'Lizzie is a real sister,' she said, placing her hand on the other's shoulder, 'she's been much more of a real sibling to me than you ever have.'

Alex put his hand on his heart and faked a cry of pain. 'Your words hurt me so much,' he mocked. He took a couple of paces towards them and smirked as Lizzie's anger reached boiling point. 'Nice place,' he said coolly, staring up at the crumbling angels above him, 'I bet it has an interesting history.'

'Why are you here, Alex?' Jessica said levelly, 'because I'm guessing it's not for the archaeology.'

'In many ways, I am. I'm here on the Grand Master's orders to search for a very specific artefact,' Alex said. He raised his eyebrows and continued, 'and here comes a little messenger, baring good news I hope.'

Carrie had appeared from round the back of the staircase where the basement steps were found. She stopped and stared at the SKUL agents gathered around Alex, before turning to the four on the stairs. 'Success?' Luke asked. Carrie shook her head and apologised. 'Never mind,' Luke said, trying to keep his voice low, 'we'll keep looking.'

From the opposite side of the entrance hall, Alex stared to clap. It wasn't applause, the pauses were too long and the claps too short. His patronisation was fuelling Lizzie's rage; Oscar could see her beginning to shake with anger. He leaned forward and touched her arm. Lizzie looked around and all the fight seemed to vanish. She slumped and Oscar put his whole hand on her shoulder.

'So glad to hear your optimism,' Alex said, 'I hope we can all benefit from it.'

'We'll benefit more if you get out,' Luke snarled, jumping the banister to get to Carrie's side.

'Ah,' Alex said, 'there seems to be a flaw in that thinking because we're not planning on going anywhere. Not until we get what we came for.'

'The formula?' Lizzie asked. She tilted her head and continued, 'that's what you're after, isn't it?'

'Why should you be the only ones to be gifted?' Alex hissed, a hiss that rose steadily until it became a roar, 'why should others have to put up with constantly being in your shadows? Why should you be "chosen"? How is that fair?'

'Fair?' Lizzie repeated incredulously, 'Fair? Life isn't fair, Alex! I thought you were aware of that! Believe me when I say that I would rather be anywhere else than here! I'd rather be someone else. But I don't want to have to let someone else have to deal with your crap.' She shrugged off Oscar's touch and stepped forwards. As one, every SKUL agent other than Alex stepped back.

Alex only smiled. 'You're right,' he said softly, 'life isn't fair. So it's our job to even it out.'

'What do you mean?'

Alex clicked his fingers. A SKUL guard lurking near the back of the group jumped and scurried forwards. From within a pocket in his bag he retrieved a sealed scroll which he placed in Alex's hand. Then he scuttled back into the safety of the group. Meanwhile, Alex unstopped the top of the scroll's container and slid out the weathered papers.

'Do you know what these are?' he asked, cradling them in his hands. The spies remained silent. Alex sneered and said disbelievingly, 'you don't know.'

'We can guess,' someone said and Max and Rose emerged from behind the main staircase, the other side to Carrie and Luke. Max finished wiping his glasses, but them back on his nose and said, 'and my guess would be, that those are the plans that were stolen by the traitor within MI9.'

'The know-it-all still knows it all,' Alex laughed, 'that's right. I have a lot to thank Paul Batson for. If he hadn't stolen those plans from the fools who called themselves my parents, the Grand Master would never have welcomed me into SKUL. If Batson hadn't taken the plans to SKUL after being booted out of MI9, my plans to create an army of "perfect" beings would have sounded like the talk of a madman to the Grand Master.'

'It is the talk of a madman,' Lizzie said, but Alex wasn't listening.

'I have waited my whole life to step out of your shadow and become someone my parents would love better. But when that was never going to happen, I had to find another way than simply being the perfect son they wanted.'

'I do cast a very big shadow,' Lizzie said. Jessica gave her a warning look and stepped forwards.

'Alex,' she whispered, 'you needn't have done what you did. Mum and Dad loved you for who you were, not because you were better than Lizzie. You… that's not what they wanted…'

'I don't care any longer,' Alex said. He rolled the papers back up and slid them back into the metal cylinder. 'I'm going make a new form for myself. One that I will be proud of. And it will be soon, very soon.' He sealed the cylinder and slid it into his belt. 'Paul Batson did not please the Grand Master as much as he wanted to because, although he had the plans for the machine, he had no formula.'

'Yeah,' Luke interrupted, 'we know.'

'I suppose you got all that from Batson himself when he was caught by MI9 less than a year after he betrayed them. He would have gone down a hero to SKUL if he had fully completed his task.'

'What happened?' Carrie murmured.

'Paul Batson was arrested when he tried getting through Germany, to here we believe. The MIA intercepted and arrested him. He was brought back to Britain to be put on trial. He was found on the morning of his first hearing in his prison cell, dead. It is believed that SKUL managed to slip him poison so he couldn't give anything away,' Luke explained. 'We believe that he was trying to make his way here to search for the formula. No doubt he was accompanied by other SKUL agents who followed him back to Britain and assassinated him when they realised that he was not going to escape.'

Alex smirked. 'That's pretty close actually. Did Mr Know-it-all come up with that?'

'I wish you would stop insulting my friends,' Lizzie said in a dangerously low voice.

'I wish you would make my life simple and hand over the formula,' Alex said lightly, 'we both know that each other's dreams are nothing more than that: dreams. But I want so badly to make my dream a reality.'

'It can stay a nightmare for a while longer,' Lizzie said. She caught Max's eye and nodded. Max nodded back and inhaled deeply. Oscar knew what was coming and reached forwards to grasp the back of Lizzie's top. Beside him, Jessica was doing the same. Max opened his eyes and time stood still.

As Oscar's fingertips brushed Lizzie's back, a shiver ran down his body and he groaned. Jessica's hand grasped his wrist last moment, but she got the same cold feeling. They stared at one another and then at Lizzie who was now running across the main hall towards her frozen brother. Her fist was raised as if she was going to punch him.

'Lizzie!' Luke's warning stopped Lizzie in her tracks. He had appeared between Oscar and Jessica, grasping them tightly around an elbow, which made them realise that they must have been frozen for at least a moment or two. 'You know if you touch him he can unfreeze.'

'He'll refreeze as soon as I let him go,' Lizzie argued. 'I'm going to have to. He has his hand on top of the plans. He knew we were going to try the time freezing technique. There is no way I can get them now without touching him.'

'That's what he wants,' Jessica called out, 'leave him Lizzie. We can get them some other time, when we will have the advantage.'

'If we let those plans leave this room,' Lizzie yelled, 'we could lose them for good! We have to take them now, whilst we know where they are!'

'Now is not the time, Lizzie,' Max came to the foot of the stairs and said, 'there is a time ahead of this when we can take them. When the idiot arrives. Until then, we will be at a disadvantage.'

'Come on Lizzie,' Luke said, 'now's our best time to retreat.'

There was a pause as Lizzie thought through everything that her friends had said. Finally, her shoulders slumped and she resigned herself to the fact that they were probably right. But she could still do one thing. 'You go,' she said, a small smile creeping onto her face, 'I have to show our guests from the building.'

Luke and Max exchanged glances. 'Alright, Lizzie,' Luke said eventually, 'please, try and control yourself, okay?'

'Alright,' Lizzie called back. Luke and Max nodded at one another before Luke led the way towards the basement. When they neared it, Oscar pulled out of Luke's grip. The next thing he was aware of, he was alone and someone was shouting. Intrigued, Oscar backed up behind the staircase and peered around it.

The first thing he saw was Lizzie dropping from her position on the ceiling into the midst of the SKUL crowd. Several agents fell at her first blow and others were soon dropping like flies as she lashed out at them. Alex, who had been laughing at the cowardice of the Trio, turned to discover what the yells were about and launched himself at Lizzie when he saw who it was. Oscar was certain that Lizzie was suffering under the onslaught of agents and Alex but before he could act, Lizzie trust outwards with her hands and a great gust of wind blew all attacking agents away from her. She jumped and flipped her way over the groaning bodies into the centre of the room.

SKUL agents were backing out of the door now. Lizzie would take a couple of steps in the direction of some dazed agents who would hurry away from her as fast as possible when in a stupor.

After a while, it was only Alex left. He glared at Lizzie as he backed out of the doors. 'This isn't a retreat,' he snarled, 'I will get that formula.'

'Keep dreaming, brother,' Lizzie said and slammed the doors in his face. She kicked up a chunk of rock from the ground and slotted it in between the doors to hold them shut. She turned quickly when she heard someone applauding her.

Oscar emerged from the staircase's shadow, beaming. 'Impressive,' he called to her, 'you've got better.'

Lizzie tucked a stray hair behind her ear and smiled. 'Thanks.'

Oscar gestured to the wall. 'I didn't know you could run up walls.'

'Another of my specialities.'

Oscar lowered his gaze and said softly, 'you did have me worrying at moments.'

Lizzie took a deep breath and cross the hall to him. 'You should stop doubting me,' she said, 'I can take care of myself.'

'I know you can,' Oscar said, 'but…'

Lizzie placed a finger on his lips. 'Not now,' she said softly, making Oscar blush slightly. 'Come on,' she took his hand and dragged him in the direction of the basement. 'We need to work out what to do now my brother has arrived.'

* * *

Exciting I hope. Look out for the next chapter, whenever it may be. Sorry but that will probably be a long talky one, but the one afterwards definately has some action.

Over and out!


	8. SKUL become more of a problem

Woo! I'm on a roll! And have to go back to boring revising from tomorrow onwards... urgh!

Oh well! For now, I can forget that because here is the next chapter!

* * *

'We have a problem,' Lizzie stated as she jumped the last steps into the lab.

'Would that problem happen to be that your mad brother has made camp outside?' Max asked, teasingly. Lizzie strode past him and, although she didn't touch him, knocked Max onto his backside en route. 'Take that as a yes then,' Max muttered as Rose helped him back up.

'Come on now,' Luke said, trying to stay calm, 'we should be trying to get along. We may be stuck here for some time.'

'Try and stay positive,' Carrie suggested, 'we know that SKUL are right outside, but what do we have?'

'We have the Trio,' Jessica said with a grin, 'that definitely gives us an advantage.'

'We should use it,' Lizzie muttered.

Luke nodded. 'I'll try and sneak into the SKUL camp later and see if I can locate the plans. Later though, they'll be expecting it now.'

'No, they won't,' Lizzie argued.

'Even if they don't expect anything now,' Oscar said, 'Luke will stand out. You just beat up most of the agents. Even the ones still conscious will be limping or injured in some way. Luke would be caught in an instant.' Lizzie scowled but didn't argue back.

Luke glanced gratefully at Oscar before turning to Max. 'How long until MI9's help will arrive?'

'If we send the distress message immediately,' Max said, 'it should take at least two to three days depending on where they are coming from and how they are getting here.'

'They'll send Stark, you know,' Lizzie said.

'He'll be unbearable when he arrives,' Carrie added.

'I don't doubt that SKUL have a back-up team,' Luke said, 'so we should and unfortunately, it'll have to be MI9.'

'You have my dad,' Oscar pointed out.

'Sorry, Oscar,' Luke said, 'as great as I remember your dad being, he doesn't have a full team ready. You are his elite team.'

'You found your dad?' Lizzie said confused, beforehand clearly unaware of this news.

'More like, he found us,' Carrie smiled.

'Tell you later,' Oscar promised. Lizzie nodded, not totally reassured.

'Right now,' Rose suggested, 'I think we should focus on trying to contact MI9. What do you think?' There was a pause.

'Sounds about right,' Luke agreed.

'How?' Lizzie asked.

Max moved towards the machine and examined the old computer. 'We know this thing doesn't work,' he mused, 'but we could use the parts to boost the signal on our communicators.'

'You're probably going to need all our communicators,' Rose said, as she crossed to join him. 'This machine is really, really old.'

'Will that be a problem?' Luke asked.

'Shouldn't be,' Max said with a grin. 'Rose and I will get something together.'

Luke nodded. 'In the meantime, someone should go on patrol to keep SKUL at bay. If they know that we are remaining vigilant then they should remain where they are.'

'I'll do it with Oscar,' Lizzie volunteered immediately. She grabbed Oscar's arm as she strode passed him. Oscar managed to give Carrie and Luke a bemused look as he was dragged from the room.

'Well,' they heard Luke say as they climbed the staircase, 'that settles that. Should we keep looking for this formula then?'

'What was that about your dad?' Lizzie asked as they reached the hall.

Oscar chewed his lip, wondering where to start. 'Do you what happened to mum?' he said at last.

'Yeah,' Lizzie said sadly. 'I'm sorry about that.'

'Why?' Oscar said, 'it's not your fault. You were still in care at that point.'

'Yeah,' Lizzie said distractedly, moving away from Oscar across the hall to check the security of the doors. 'I just feel... like I should... I do feel sorry for you. I mean, I know what it's like to have a broken family, but at least I was old enough to deal with Alex. You must have been what, nine? Ten?'

'Twelve,' Oscar corrected her.

'Oh well that's better than I thought,' Lizzie turned to face him and tried smiling. Oscar attempted a reassuring grin, but it appeared more like a grimace. Something in the shadows above the doorway made him look up. 'Lizzie! Look out!'

With a grunt of effort, the SKUL agent pushed the lump of marble off the ledge it rested on, several metres above Lizzie's head. Oscar started running but knew he was going to get there too late. Lizzie didn't move. She was still turning her head to look up. To Oscar's horror, the marble fell squarely onto her head.

And passed straight through her.

Lizzie made a face. 'I hate it when that happens,' she said. 'It feels... weird.' She stepped towards the wall. The SKUL agent was just realising that nothing had really happened when Lizzie struck the wall with her fist. The wall rippled and the SKUL agent staggered. He tottered backwards and toppled out of the arched windows set above the door. There was a shout followed by a loud snapping noise as he hit the floor the other side.

Lizzie listened, trying hard not to look amused. 'Sounds like he broke something,' she said. She turned to Oscar and registered his expression.

Oscar sighed. 'You don't have to fight violence with violence.'

Lizzie frowned. 'He dropped a marble block on my head.' She pointed to the smashed remains of marble on the floor. 'That would have killed me, had I been normal.'

Oscar smiled and stepped towards Lizzie. He pushed a loose lock of hair behind her ear and grinned. 'Good job you're not normal,' he said softly, 'besides,' he said with a grin, striding back towards the sweeping staircase at the far end of the hall, 'even if the Professor hadn't experimented on you, I get the impression you would never had been normal. You're too... extravagant.'

Lizzie flushed pink, tucked the hair behind her ear again and muttered, 'extravagant,' with a tiny laugh as she followed Oscar. 'So,' she said as she reached him, 'you didn't tell me. Your dad…'

So Oscar told her how he had decided to take down SKUL once and for all, how he had persuaded a guy called Vincent that he should be part of SKUL, how he had helped plot to kidnap the head of MI9, been double crossed by the Grandmaster and had to be rescued by Carrie, Rose and Vincent who had turned out to be his father.

Lizzie shook her head when she first heard Oscar's plan and murmured, 'oh Oscar,' in disbelief. She smiled a half smile when she first heard about Vincent, which had spread to a full grin by the end of Oscar's tale.

'You really didn't think before you acted did you?' she said once Oscar had finished.

'Um…' Oscar said, very aware that the answer was "yes, he didn't".

Lizzie was still chuckling as she reached the edge of the second floor, where the side of the castle had fallen away, and peered over the rim. 'What you did, it sounds so much like something Jade would do,' she commented, humouredly, 'she was always doing things before thinking about the consequences.'

'I do think about the consequences,' Oscar said, suddenly cold, 'I am not my mother.'

'No!' Lizzie said quickly, whipping round to face him, 'I didn't mean it like that!'

Oscar frowned and kicked a pebble lying by his foot. It skimmed across the stone floor, passed Lizzie and out into open air. In the following silence, they could hear it clatter on the rocks far below.

'Sorry,' Oscar said quietly, 'I didn't mean to be so cold.'

'I'm sorry too,' Lizzie said, 'I didn't…' she stopped herself and started again. 'So you found your dad. That must be great.' She paused and then asked, 'what was your mum's reaction?'

'I don't know,' Oscar admitted, 'Dad went alone to see her and wouldn't tell me when he got back.' He paused too and then said hesitantly, 'I think her reaction hurt him.'

'I'm sure it did,' Lizzie said, looking Oscar in the eye as best she could when he was refusing to look at her, 'she probably told him the truth.'

Oscar stared at her. There was a moment of silence as they gazed into each other's eyes, each trying to figure out the other's emotions, wondering what the other was trying to say. Finally Oscar asked, 'would that have hurt him?'

'Probably,' Lizzie admitted.

Oscar noted her deep breathing. She was trying to stay calm. He licked his lips nervously and asked, 'what would she have said?'

Lizzie broke the eye contact and glanced away nervously. Oscar cursed silently. He had said the wrong thing. 'If Edward didn't tell you,' Lizzie said finally, 'I don't think it's my place to…'

'Don't worry about it,' Oscar said, trying to be comforting, 'I'll... I'll ask Dad when I get home.'

'Sure,' Lizzie said absent-mindedly. She frowned and moved closer to a gap in the wall. 'Come look at this.'

Oscar moved to join her. Through a gap where a stone section had been removed, he could see SKUL agents hanging by ropes below the cliff path leading to the castle on which SKUL had camped. They were doing something to the cliff face, but he was too far to see what they were doing. An idea came to him and he pulled out his spy-pod. Time to test Frank's binocular update.

Lizzie was still squinting at the figures. 'What are they doing?' she wondered aloud.

'They're hammering metal into the rocky wall,' Oscar informed her. Lizzie turned to him in amazement, and then rolled her eyes when she discovered how he knew this.

'Can you see what they are?'

Oscar tried zooming in further, but the images kept becoming blurred. He should tell Frank about that. He did manage to get the basic outline of one of the metal pieces. 'They're just bars,' he said, 'bars of metal, shaped like giant open staples. They've hammered each side into the wall... hang on!' he said as one of the SKUL agents unclipped a carabineer from his rope and attached it to the metal bar. He let go and hung on the bar, testing how firm it was before reattaching it to the rope and using the metal bar to haul himself upright. 'They're hand holds, or foot holds, or something to attach ropes to. They're there so SKUL can climb across the cliff face-'

'To here!' Lizzie exclaimed, 'they're going to climb across the cliff face to the open part of the castle! How far have they got?'

'Oscar scanned the cliff face. 'Not far,' he said, 'but at this rate, they won't need long.'

'We need to tell the others,' Lizzie said, racing back along the corridor, 'and send that message as soon as possible. We won't be able to keep SKUL at bay if they make it in here.'

* * *

Will try and update soon!


	9. Finding the Formula

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you , Guardian of universes (love the name by the way) for sending me the link on youtube. Didn't think of looking there.

This chapter focuses on the others in the group because I am constantly doing it about Oscar and Lizzie. Enjoy!

* * *

'We need to act and we need to act fast,' Luke said decidedly after Lizzie and Oscar finished describing SKUL's attempts at creating a climbing wall on the cliff face, 'Lizzie, can you sort some of those pegs out? Get rid of them.' Lizzie was already running at the far wall when Luke called after her, 'and make sure there are no SKUL agents on them when you pull them out. We don't want to be responsible for anyone's death, whether they are a SKUL agent or not.'

Lizzie pulled a face at him. 'Do you really think that I would do something like that anyway?' she asked brusquely before placing her hand against the stone wall and sliding through it as if it was nothing more than a sheet of water.

Luke watched her go before murmuring, 'some days I really don't know.' He glanced sideways at Oscar and muttered, 'could you possibly keep an eye on her? Check that she's not doing anything too dangerous?' Oscar nodded understandingly and hurried from the basement. Both boys knew how Lizzie could get when faced with the prospect of ruining her brother and that sometimes she could forget her own safety could be at risk. Once Oscar had gone, Luke turned his back on the place his teammate had exited and strode to the opposite end of the lab where Max and Rose were working. 'How's it coming along?'

Max finished wiping his glasses, put them back on his nose and studied the device he and Rose had constructed from the old computer equipment. 'I think it'll work,' he said, 'provided we have good signal and a regular supply of electricity.'

Luke nodded slowly. 'Your thoughts, Rose?'

Rose sighed. 'Like Max said, it may work. This technology is quite out of date and even with all our communicators, the signal here is very poor. We might not be picked up the other end. If the worst comes to the worst, we might have to relocate the device in order to send the message. The electricity problem can be easily solved though. We can use the battery in my spy pod.'

'Will it work?' Max asked, taking the spy pod from Rose and examining it, 'it looks pretty small to me.'

'It managed to keep the SKUL doors open in order for me, Oscar, Carrie and the head of MI9 to escape from SKUL in our last mission,' Rose said, 'the mission where we found Oscar's dad.'

'We'll have to put it in and keep our fingers crossed,' Luke said, reaching down to pick up the device. Jessica was at his shoulder in an instant from her position with Carrie at one of the workbenches.

'What do you mean "we"?' she snapped, 'you're not planning on going, are you?'

'I thought I told you not to eavesdrop when I'm discussing business,' Luke growled, turning away from her. Jessica sidestepped him and stood directly in front of him.

'I wasn't eavesdropping. In a room like this, it's impossible to keep any conversation a secret, it echoes so much,' she said crossly, 'and you haven't answered my question.'

'Someone has to go with Max to send the message,' Luke told her calmly.

'And why can't that be Rose?' Jessica pleaded.

'Because we need one genius to stay behind and help defend the castle against SKUL,' Luke said.

'But you said…'

'I know what I said Jessica, but things have changed. You told me yourself that you would rather die than be forced to rejoin SKUL and I don't blame you for that. I know you feel…' Luke searched for the right word, 'vulnerable at times because we can do so much more than you, but you can look after yourself so much better than you believe you can. It's nice to have people to depend upon, I know, but you have to stand on your own two feet every once in a while otherwise you forget how to walk alone.'

Jessica hung her head. 'Have you told Lizzie yet?' she asked after a while.

'No,' Luke admitted.

Jessica grinned. 'She's going to be furious you know. She hates being left by herself.'

Luke chuckled. 'And yet, she often decides to go it alone. It's like she doesn't want to be separated when we have no choice and yet when we could be together, she prefers her own ways.'

They shared a smile. Silence descended in the lab, broken only by Rose and Max's whispering as they adjusted the communications device. Carrie, who was slightly irritated by being left to search alone, got up to try and get Jessica to come back and help. She stood a bit too suddenly from her high stool and wacked her knee against the desk. Next moment, she had been knocked backwards off the stool as a hidden drawer in the desk had shot out, hitting her in the midriff.

'Carrie!' the other four ran over to her. Jessica and Rose helped her up as Luke and Max bent over the secret workstation. Max picked up a couple of the worn pages lying at the bottom of the draw. He scanned it and then tossed it back with one word, 'toxic.' He picked up another, and another, but neither were the one he was looking for.

'These appear to be old formulae,' he concluded excitedly, 'not much use. But maybe there's another drawer.' He started tapping the bottom of the workbenches, checking for anything that might indicate any more secrets. Carrie, now excited by what she had discovered, moved off in the other direction.

Rose stepped closer to the drawer already discovered. She took all the papers out and lined them up on the desktop, frowning. There was something bothering her. 'Why hide formulae that have no use?' she pondered aloud. She skimmed over the sheets, searching for clues, familiar symbols leaping out at her. 'He's used tritemerite in one of his formula,' she said to the room in general, 'that's really dangerous!'

'Probably in the real formula though,' Max replied, peering under the desk at something he had found, 'that's most likely where we get our power from.'

Rose knew there was still something out of place and it was bugging her. She was distracted however when Carrie, who seemed to be having luck with this sort of thing, cried, 'aha!' and clicked something she could feel. She was quickly surrounded by Max, Jessica and Luke, Rose only staying where she was to figure out what was wrong.

This drawer was smaller than the first, but deeper, and hidden within it was a leather-bound rectangular book which sat lengthways, covered by dust. Carrie carefully pulled it out and dusted it down. She glanced at the others, relishing the fact that she had discovered something important again, and opened it. She couldn't understand half the words on the page. It was partly the handwriting, but there were random symbols here and there on the pages. She turned them carefully so that they all could see them. It appeared to be some sort of diary, but the Professor had not kept much of a record about his life. It was filled instead with different attempts at the formula, the children he had abducted and the new world he dream of creating. It sounded to Carrie like the talk of a madman, which she stated quite clearly to the rest of the group.

'Are you insane?' Max asked, as if Carrie really was, 'this is incredible.' He took the book off Carrie and started studying the pages himself. He turned the last one and grinned slightly, turning the book round so that the others could see the page. It depicted three sleeping babies, clearly meant to be the young Trio, and something was scrawled across the centre of the page.

'What does that say?' Luke asked, indicating the message in the middle of the children. Jessica leaned close and read, 'Though individual they may be, as one they will always seem.'

Carrie giggled. 'He sounds very poetic for a madman.'

Rose had snapped upright at Jessica's words. 'What did you say?' she said hurriedly.

'I said…' Carrie began.

'I meant Jessica,' Rose interrupted.

Carrie frowned. So did Jessica and she pointed to the book. 'I was reading from that,' she said, 'it's referring to the Trio.'

'Could be,' Rose said, returning to the pages on the desk, 'or it could be referring to this. Thought they are on different sheets of paper and seem totally unconnected, this is the formula!'

Max joined her and after a few seconds, his disbelieving expression changed into one of pure delight. 'You're right!' he exclaimed, 'this is it! We found it! We found it!'

Carrie coughed. 'I think you'll find that I found it.'

'Yeah, yeah, I suppose,' Max said distractedly, waving the thought aside. He was studying every part of the formula. 'I did mention this stuff is toxic, you know. In high dosages, it could be lethal.'

'That was something that the Professor experimented with no doubt,' Rose said, 'the quanity to give.'

'Of course he did,' Max said absentmindedly. He slid the papers into an order and stacked them neatly on the side. He and Rose stared at them for a while before turning to one another. 'Shall we get back to the communications?' Max offered, 'the sooner we complete that the better.'

'Sure,' Rose agreed and they headed up to the end of the lab again.

The other three looked at one another wondering what to do next. They were saved the trouble of thinking of something when there was a cry from the wall behind them and Lizzie toppled through it. They swivelled round to face her and could now hear footsteps racing in their direction. Jessica let out a short scream as Oscar burst into the room and both ran to Lizzie's side.

Oscar wheeled back after a second with a curse. 'They got her!' Luke and Carrie started towards the group. Lizzie reached up towards Oscar to console him and as she did, Carrie and Luke noticed the blood on her fingers. Luke swore and sprinted the rest of the way to Lizzie followed swiftly by Carrie, Max and Rose.

'It's okay,' Lizzie was telling Oscar soothingly as they reached her, 'it's okay. I'll be fine.'

'What the hell happened?' Luke demanded as he stood over Lizzie. Her left hand, which Jessica was now gently holding, was bleeding.

Lizzie winced as Jessica's fingers gently rubbed the area around her wound, trying to see it better through all the blood. 'I was pulling the metal bars out of the rock like you told me to. I had sent most of them clattering down into the valley when a SKUL guard pulls his gun out and starts shooting at me. I thought I was safe as I retreated into the rock, but he managed to catch my hand as I withdrew.' Lizzie batted Jessica's fingers away and wiped her right palm over the back of her left hand. The blood went with it and the others were given a few seconds to see the long line across the back of Lizzie's hand before the blood welled up again. Carrie hurried off to find the first aid kit.

Luke stared long and hard at Lizzie's hand as Jessica and Carrie tended it. Finally he said, 'we need to keep going. They won't be expecting me after they've just seen Lizzie.'

Jessica realised too late what Luke meant to do. 'Luke!' she cried out in alarm, 'Don't!' but Luke was already out of the door.

* * *

Thanks once more for the link. I think I've spelt it correctly. It does become important later on so... oh I shouldn't be giving clues away should I!

Enjoy the rest of the fic!


	10. Taking on SKUL part 1: Preperation

I know, I know. I probably shouldn't be updating so quickly after just stating that I wouldn't, but I can't sleep and so have decided to write this. It's in two parts because this is the talkytalky part of the chapter and the next one will be the action side. But this was already taking up four pages on word and so I thought that was quite enough, particularly for eleven at night.

Please, remind me on the crystal thing.

* * *

Luke returned late that night when everyone but Lizzie, who was taking first watch, had fallen asleep on the mattresses that the Trio and Jessica had brought down and placed amongst the filing cabinets on the first basement level, using them as a wall in replacement for the one that had fallen away. All had agreed that sleeping in the lower basement was creepy, particularly with the machine sitting in the shadow.

Everyone had been asleep, that is, until Luke reappeared at the bottom of the stairs. His and Lizzie's shouting match would have woken anyone up.

'Please!' Carrie shouted above the noise, 'Some people are trying to sleep!' but now they were awake, they were awake and wanted to hear what Luke had discovered.

Luke's news wasn't good. 'The plans are properly hidden,' he said, 'I didn't get a chance to search Alex's tent. Good news is several of them are still injured. Bad news is that they've called for extra agents who have been staying in nearby towns. They will arrive in the next few days. When they arrive, they plan on storming the castle and taking over by force.'

'Everything Alex does nowadays is done with force,' Jessica muttered groggily, her head resting on Luke's shoulder. Everyone was pretty sure that she was falling asleep again.

'Let's not think about that now,' Rose said, 'we need to sleep.'

'I like that idea,' Luke said yawning, but as he moved to find his sleeping bag, Lizzie grabbed his foot.

'Oh, no you don't! Since you clearly have so much energy that you can rush off with your own plans instead of talking it through with us, you can take first watch. Wake someone in four hours.'

'Four hours!' Luke said in disbelief as Lizzie crawled on her belly, still in her sleeping bag, like a little green caterpillar back to the mattress she was sharing with Carrie, Jessica and Rose. No-one offered to shorten that time period, so Luke sat with his back to one of the filing cabinets, grumbling.

Luke woke Max only when he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. He knew it wasn't four hours, but he was too tired to care. Max promptly woke Oscar, told him that he had just finished his shift and that it was his turn. Oscar checked his watch and was about to point out to Max that it was only two in the morning, Luke hadn't finished his four hours and so how could Max have had a long enough shift, but Max was already asleep. Oscar struggled through until three by reading scraps of information he found in the surrounding drawers, but when he found his eyelids dropping, he crawled across to the girls' mattress.

He was about to wake Lizzie, thought better of it and woke Carrie instead. Carrie was fine about doing a shift and Oscar went back to his mattress, relieved.

Lizzie woke everyone in the morning, the girls gently and the boys by pouring rain water over their heads, carefully making sure that Oscar didn't get wet, just the occasional splash.

'What was that for?' Luke spluttered, sitting bolt upright and wiping water from his eyes.

'I've just been told by Carrie that she was woken by Oscar at three this morning after, apparently, all the boys had had their turns. I've done the maths and that means that you three did less than two hour shifts. Oscar, I believe, might have done two hours, but I gave you a four hour shift, Luke, which it appears you didn't do.'

'That's way too long to be given at eleven at night,' Luke grumbled, 'I did two and woke Max at one.'

'What time did you wake Oscar, Max?' Lizzie asked, folding her arms. Max shrugged and refused to look at them. 'I see.'

Jessica ascended the stairs leading to the lower basement. 'Breakfast,' she called. Lizzie let Oscar and Luke struggle out of their wet sleeping bags and lumber towards Jessica, but stopped Max as he passed.

Max joined them forty five minutes later, complaining, 'since when was Lizzie in charge? Who put Lizzie in charge? I think whoever put Lizzie in charge should demote her immediately.'

'Where are you been?' Carrie asked, the only person who could be called reasonably awake.

'Lizzie made me hang up all the boys' sleeping bags so they would dry and then sent me out in the rain to spy on the SKUL camp.'

'You can freeze time,' Jessica pointed out, 'doesn't that mean you don't get rained on?'

'Freezing time doesn't stop me hitting the raindrops that have already fallen to my level,' Max said in way of explanation and helped himself to bread to put into the toaster he had constructed weeks before using old wires, metal fibres and an old but still powerful battery.

Everyone nodded as if they understood him and went back to their own breakfasts. 'So what's it like in the camp?' Oscar asked during a pause between mouthfuls.

'Well, I didn't hear much, with time being frozen and all,' Max said, 'but I had a good poke around and failed to find the plans. Did find some very interesting plans belonging to Alex about the next few days, but that just seemed to confirm what Luke already heard. Oh, and he clearly knows that we're trying to infiltrate the camp, because he left this "hidden" in his tent.' Max passed round a piece of paper with a number written on it.

'The Grand Master,' Luke read, 'and there's a number. Do you really think that this is the Grand Master's number?'

'It isn't,' Rose said simply, 'I have a good memory for numbers. That's one of the claims companies with the weird adverts from the TV.'

'Great,' Luke said, shredding the paper.

'We could have used that for future handwriting analysis,' Lizzie commented dryly. Luke paused halfway through his seventh tear to stare at her.

'Now you tell me.'

'It's okay.'

'Can we focus?' Carrie asked. Luke and Lizzie both raised their eyebrows, but said nothing more. 'I think we need to move ahead with our plans. We need to send that message.'

'Max and I will set off as soon as possible,' Luke said firmly. Max paused in the middle of biting his dry toast to glower at his teammate. 'Whilst we're away, I suggest the rest of you set up the castle so it is impregnable from the outside.'

'How will you get back in?' Carrie pointed out.

'You've forgotten, we have a human escalator amongst us,' Luke said, gesturing at Lizzie.

'I really don't like that nickname,' Lizzie absentmindedly remarked.

'Fine,' Luke said, 'Max, hurry up. We should get going soon.'

Then, Lizzie twigged it. 'So I'm going to be left alone, against by brother and the whole of SKUL-'

'Not the whole of SKUL,' Luke interrupted, but Lizzie continued as if she hadn't heard him.

'-against the whole of SKUL, alone, whilst you two toddle off and do a simple little communications thingy that someone else could do?'

'Yeah,' Luke said causally, 'we're sure you can manage.'

'Right,' Lizzie said. There was a stony silence.

'Do you want to come?' Luke asked eventually.

'No!' Lizzie replied, horrified.

'We'll then,' Luke said.

Luke and Max set off shortly after ten. Lizzie reappeared in the lab to see Oscar showing the girls how to set trip wires. 'I thought we could spread these through the main hall with a few added dangers as the first assault,' he told Lizzie.

'Good idea,' Lizzie said, although she didn't sound enthusiastic.

Oscar oversaw the laying out of the trip wires. He had hoped to put up some swinging blocks, but Lizzie was determined to remain in the lab for some reason. Finally, Oscar grew tired of waiting for her and so asked Jessica to see whether she was alright. She returned, slightly wet, but grinning.

'Oscar,' Jessica said, playfully, in a way that reminded Oscar strongly of Carrie, 'we're not taking this seriously are we?'

'Suppose not,' Oscar said slowly. Jessica grinned and matched back around the staircase. 'Okay, Lizzie!' Oscar heard her yell, 'he's agreed.' The sisters appeared moments later with bags hanging from their arms. Attached to Lizzie's belt was the largest gun Oscar had seen in a long time.

'What is that?' he asked, pointing at it.

'Do you like it?' Lizzie asked, 'been a little pet project for the last few hours. It has an optimum range of about the length of the lab and has a force of about a small stream.'

'What?' Oscar asked. In response, Lizzie unhooked it from her belt, aimed it at him and fired. The jet of water hit Oscar like, as Lizzie had said, a small brook and drenched him in seconds.

'It's raining today,' Lizzie said casually as Oscar gasped for breath, 'so it's easy to refill.'

Carrie and Rose had joined them by now. 'Where did you get the water pistol?' Carrie asked, intrigued.

'More a water gun than a pistol,' Lizzie giggled, reattaching it to her belt, 'I made it.'

'You made it!' Carrie was suitably impressed, 'where did you learn to make a gun?'

'On my MI9 training course,' Lizzie said, 'you must remember that this was designed for people older than us so they didn't mind as much as they do now about giving us weapons. It was a section of the course in which we were locked in a room with junk and were required to make a weapon in order to fight our way out. Okay, we kind of cheated because Max showed us beforehand a sneaky way of making a gun out of anything. All it requires is a way of firing the projectile.'

'Cool!'

'I could make you one if you like.'

'Really!' Carrie seemed excited about the prospect.

'Not now though,' Jessica reminded her, 'we have something else that we want to do, right.'

'Oh! Right!' Lizzie giggled again. 'Oscar, do you have any more wire? Or do I need to get some more?'

'How much do you need?'

'A lot more than that.'

'Sorry,' Oscar said, 'I'll get you some more.'

'It's okay,' Lizzie said, placing her bags at Jessica's feet and taking a couple of steps away from her, 'I'll get them.' So saying she disappeared into the ground. There was a dull thud from the floor below followed swiftly by an 'ouch! I landed on a filing cabinet!'

'She can be quite careless at times,' Jessica grinned, 'why don't you guys set up some smaller trip wires on the higher levels?'

'Okay,' Oscar said slowly, 'what are you planning on doing?'

'You'll see,' Jessica said cheekily shooing them up the stairs, 'and hear and smell most likely.'

* * *

The next chapter will have action I promise... when I get round to writing it...


	11. Taking on SKUL part 2: Attack

Wow! I didn't realise how close I was to the end of this fic until I checked my plan. Only five more chapters to go and only four of them are the real story (I thought I might do a kind of classification thing like I did at the end of the Trio, but telling you about something different about the Trio's lives).

This chapter should be a fun one. I certainly had fun writing it.

Realised I haven't done a disclaimer in a while. **I don't own MI9**. But do own the Trio, Jessica, the Professor and Alex so keep your mitts off my characters.

* * *

Alex paced the line of SKUL agents. He hadn't picked them, and if he had had the choice, he wouldn't have picked them. But a smart SKUL agent was rare these days. Anyone in SKUL with any brains had either been promoted above Alex, or been caught.

Take Jade for example. Alex had never gotten on well with Jade, but they had coped. He disapproved of her; it was on her suggestion that SKUL hired and lost Sally, but he disapproved on her mostly because of her obsession with getting her son to join. Alex had realised early on that Oscar was not going to join SKUL. A reason why he had kidnapped him and locked him up, something that Jade would have been outraged at. But Jade was behind MI9 bars at that point, not in a position to criticize Alex's ways.

But if all went to plan, maybe the Grandmaster would allow Alex a few moments with Jade to persuade her. It would be pretty easy if he could…

Alex was awoken sharply from his daydream by a loud sneeze. He rolled his eyes and turned to glare murderously at the immediately apologetic agent. There goes our element of surprise, Alex thought furiously, if we actually had one with know-it-all Oracle inside.

There was a small _thunk_ as the SKUL agents breaking open the doors managed to remove the rock Lizzie had been using as a barricade that had been wedged firmly between the doors. Easy, Alex grinned nastily, now for the fun.

On his signal, the SKUL agents crept forward as quietly as possible. They entered the main hall and lined up inside as planned. Alex entered last.

There appeared to be no sign of resistance. Alex was momentarily confused. Maybe they weren't expecting us, he thought (almost hopefully) as the first wave of SKUL agents pressed forwards.

Several twangs filled the air and the room was suddenly filled with a green gas substance. The room was instantly filled with shouts, coughs and the sound of someone choking. The rest of the SKUL agents, without thinking or waiting for instructions, rushed forwards. Many of them were tripped up after taking no more than a few steps. One was hit by several pellets filled with something. Everyone was choking in seconds. Alex took a deep breath in order to bellow at the idiots rolling about the place and gagged. The smell was terrible.

'Stink bombs?' he said in bewilderment, 'they're attacking us with stink bombs?'

There was a cry and an agent to Alex's left was knocked sideways as a chunk of the pillar exploded outwards, swinging on invisible strings and smashing into a line of SKUL agents before colliding with the opposite wall. Alex found himself calling for the retreat before he had registered it in his brain. He hated his tongue for betraying him, but could think of no other option.

Beaten, the SKUL agents left the main hall.

'They're retreating,' Carrie mentioned to Oscar from the top of the stairs. The pair had their hands over their noses and was watching the SKUL agents stumbling around in the smoke.

'Good idea, the stink/smoke bombs,' Oscar said, 'that really confused them.'

'They'll be back, won't they,' Carrie muttered.

'Yeah, let's get into position,' Oscar agreed and they moved away from the main hall.

Alex watched the straggler emerge from the castle. He turned and examined the agents sitting around the area outside the castle who had, before the first wave, been eager and filled with stupid excitement. Now they were slumped and coughing, many still couldn't believe what had happened.

Alex strode to the edge and checked the position of his silent team. This consisted of a team of the quietest, most skilled SKUL agents he had with him. They were climbing along the steps his men had created earlier, leading to the lower level. Alex permitted himself a smile. They'll be trapped between the two gangs until they have no alternative but to surrender. The silent team were halfway along the steps, moving as quietly as climbing allowed. Alex turned back to the group still with him.

'Line up for the second assault,' he barked. The SKUL agents groaned and many of them crawled into a line. Alex's temper raised several notches. SKUL agents should not groan and mumble at their commander's order. But he had no time to scold them.

Alex walked the line, relieving some agents who simply could not continue due to injuries. How they could have obtained such injuries from a few stink bombs, trip wires and a moving chunk of wall, he wasn't sure. But one thing was certain; no agent could continue with broken bones or blinded eyes. Alex had a suspicion that many of the injuries were obtained from fellow agents although none of his men said so.

The uninjured SKUL agents watched the badly injured hobble off jealously. They wished they didn't have to go back in.

'Second assault,' Alex commanded, and the SKUL agents moved forward with him. They lined the hall once more and this time took more care when moving through the hall. Occasionally one would trip, one agent triggered a sack of bombs to drop down on top of him, but the agents moved forwards before the smoke and smell could stop them.

Alex signalled for the group to separate. A majority started to ascend the stairs to hunt out where the teenagers were staying. Alex stayed with the minority whose priority was breaking into the lower levels. Alex's smile turned to a frown as something that he been bothering him for a while rose to the front of his mind. The teens clearly knew they were coming, so where were they?

Another problem arose for Alex as his men struggled to break the doors to the basement down. 'No matter,' Alex said to them when they looked round at him fearfully, 'we'll wait and the silent team will let us in. at least they won't let me down.'

* * *

The leader of the silent team was reaching for the penultimate rung. They were nearly at the end and with still a couple of metres to go before they could reach the open side of the castle. This was where it started to get more difficult.

The leader reached the last rung and studied the rockface before him. There were simple hand and footholds that he could see, but they were all at least half a metre out of his reach. Glancing down, he spotted a way across. It was a long shot and a bit risky, but it might work.

All his men were already attached by cords in case one fell. Now those ropes would become more important as they scaled the bare rockface. The leader ordered the last man to stay on the final rung no matter what, until he was inside the castle. Then, carefully, he began to descend.

The rock was slippery, the edges were sharp, but the SKUL agents were prepared to scale any rock wall. They had been hand-picked by the Grandmaster, although they hadn't mentioned that to Alex. They were some of the best climbers within SKUL. Their leader prided himself on being the best.

The leader could see the rim of the stonework that marked the opening into the castle. This was it. They were so close.

The leader's hands reached over the stonework and his face rose high enough for him to see into the basement level.

The first thing he saw was his boss's sister standing confidently in front of him, waiting for him. And in her hands was a gun larger than the leader had seen in training or in his five years in SKUL. It had a large bulbous section at the handled end and a mean spiky barrel. Behind him, he could hear his men starting to mutter.

Lizzie pumped the gun and then pointed it in the leader's face. 'Do like my gun?' She asked innocently.

The leader went cross-eyed as he looked down the barrel. He nodded. His men were really complaining now.

Lizzie stuck her head over the side. 'Can you keep the noise down?' she shouted, 'we're trying to come to an arrangement here!' They immediately went quiet. Lizzie returned her attention to the leader. 'So,' she said, 'what are you going to do now?'

* * *

The majority of the SKUL agents inside the castle had gone up the stairs. Poor unfortunate souls...

Several hours earlier, five teenagers sat around a table, planning.

'I'll take the basement,' Lizzie announced, pointing to a sketchy "map" on the table.

'I'll stay with you,' Jessica and Oscar volunteered as soon as the last "t" had left Lizzie's lips.

'No,' Lizzie said slowly, 'I want you, Oscar, to be with Carrie on the second floor. Stop SKUL for getting hold of the upper levels. Jessica, I want you and Rose to fend off the SKUL agents from the first floor.'

'Why the first floor?' Jessica whined, 'why Rose?'

Lizzie sighed as Rose glared at Jessica. 'The first floor because if SKUL find their way down the secret passage and into here, that's it. Game over. And Rose, because I have to make the fighting even.'

'What do you mean like that?' Rose asked.

Lizzie groaned. 'There are five of us,' she explained, 'and three floors to cover. Naturally the best fighter should be by themselves and our best fighter is me, not that I'm being boastful. I'm taking the basement floor because then it stops me using the height advantage and dropping a massive rock on Alex's head.

'Then, to make the fighting even, it is clear that the second best fighter should be with the worst and the two middle-y ones should be together. I suppose, judging by what happened earlier this year that Jessica is second best as she was only beaten by me.

'I would put Carrie in the middle, no offence, but that is her role in your team and so I am presuming that she must be pretty good at what she does.

'Which leaves me with Rose and Oscar and I would place Oscar over you, Rose, mainly because I know he has the experience. I don't mean to be rude, but when I think of you, I know you are the brainy one and that automatically makes me think of Max. I make the assumption that you are like Max in fighting ability and we all know that without his time-stopping ability, Max is about as useful as wet spaghetti in a fist fight.'

Rose nodded with this logic, 'Alright.' Jessica was torn with looking pleased that Lizzie considered her a better fighter than the MI9 spies and still being displeased about being paired with Rose.

Now that her sister had stopped verbally complaining, Lizzie assigned them to their different floors. Here, Jessica started complaining again.

'You are on the first floor for Rose's sake,' Lizzie told her, 'if the battle gets too hard on her, she can slip down the secret passage. It will be easier for you. You can have water whenever you need it hidden in that passageway. Carrie and Oscar will have to be careful about the water they use.'

The SKUL agents reaching the first floor stopped at the sound of footsteps. Jessica rounded the corner ahead of them. 'Hello,' she said brightly, 'do you like it?' She raised the gun to eyelevel. 'I've a good shot you know.'

Her first shot took out the leading agent, knocking down men behind him like a couple of dominoes. Her second took out the men behind them; the third was to keep the men on the ground down. After that, Jessica threw the gun to Rose, who tried to hold it like she knew what to do with it, and got to work with her hands.

The SKUL agents who were aiming for the second floor didn't get such a warning. No sooner had a SKUL head come into view then Oscar and Carrie were aiming at it. Their opponents realised early on that the teens were manned with water guns, but Carrie made swift work of them.

Alex was still waiting patiently for his silent team to open the basement doors when a series of thuds above him and a quick round of gunfire warned him to the fact that things might not be going so well above him. Ducking out from under the stairs he watched the previously armed SKUL agent come bouncing down the staircase and roll into the main hall with a long groan. Four teens appeared in each doorway leading to higher levels. They were all armed. On the stairs, most of his men lay, defeated.

'Sir!' one of the SKUL agents cried as they heard bolts moving in the door. Alex grinned, he hadn't been let down. But one thing was puzzling him. Where were all the other teens? Unless…

Just as Alex realised what was about to happen, the doors were thrown open and Lizzie stepped through them.

'Evening, Alex,' she said coolly and fired at them.

The guards ran from the jet of water. Alex started forward when he realised what it was, accompanied by some of his braver, or more foolish, men. Lizzie lifted her little finger on her left hand which had been resting gentle on the bottom of the opening of the barrel. Ice hit the men and now they were running. Sharp shards pieced their leather and they ran from her. Lizzie fired until her targets were out of sight and then, shutting the basement doors first (it pays to be careful), walked through the staircase in front of her.

Oscar's foot stopped on the step above as she walked through.

'Another second and it would have made contact,' he joked.

Alex had stopped in the middle of the hall and was glaring at the teens, totally soaked. 'You wait!' he bellowed, 'I will succeed. More SKUL agents are on their way. When they arrive, we're taking this castle and the formula!'

'Brilliant,' Lizzie said, 'MI9 are on their way too. We can get together, have a little fight and send you scurrying back to the Grandmaster with your tail between your legs.'

'We're not afraid of water pistols,' Alex said confidently.

Lizzie rolled her eyes and pointed her gun at the nearest SKUL agent who flinched but stood his ground. Idiot, she thought as she pulled the trigger. As soon as the water hit him, Lizzie raised her little finger. The water froze.

'Do you think he can breathe?' she asked as she broke her gun away from the jet of frozen water that stretched from her to the guard who had been frozen midway through protecting himself.

There was a gunshot. Lizzie sighed and looked down at the bullet which had come within a metre of hitting her. 'Pathetic,' she said to Alex as he reloaded his gun.

Alex growled and aimed the gun again. Lizzie sighed and pushed at the air in front of her. The bullet rebounded seconds after leaving the gun and hit Alex in the arm. 'Get out of here before I really hurt you,' Lizzie said seriously.

Alex snarled and headed for the door. 'This isn't the end,' he roared, slamming the door behind him.

'Lizzie,' Jessica said as the sound of the slammed door reverberated down the hallway, 'what are we going to do with all the unconscious SKUL agents?'

Lizzie examined the stairs and the guards strewn here there and everywhere. 'Bring them down and dump them in a heap by the door,' she ordered. 'Who has the most water left in their gun?' Carrie did. 'Carrie, I have a special job for you. A team of SKUL agents tried to sneak in via the basement open wall. Go and make sure that they aren't coming back.'

Carrie nodded, pleased not to have to drag a load of smell unconscious SKUL guards down a long flight of steps. She was stopped by Lizzie, who put her head around the banister and said, 'and can you keep a note on how Alex is sulking? I just love listening to his tantrums.'

* * *

I should be updating soon as my exams are practically over. :D


	12. London! We have a Problem!

This chapter focuses on Luke and Max and what happened to them whilst the others battled SKUL.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the MI9 agents. I do own the Trio and Alex.

* * *

Luke and Max left the castle via the "Lizzie lift". They left late morning, planning on hiking further north to a mountain with better signal and sending a message from there. They would have gone south, but Max had predicted SKUL agents coming up from the north after a meeting with Italian mafia. Luke had decided to add that information into the message.

It took the rest of the day to find the best signal. They had to move slowly as Luke was carrying all the machinery by himself. Max had tried to make it as small and easy to carry as possible – difficult when all you have to use is technology from the late seventies/early eighties, when the size of computers was roughly that of a van. Max was carrying a small box with two large antenna sticking out of it. He told Luke as they walked that it was detecting the strength of the signal in the area. Luke grumbled that it was getting Max out of carrying anything.

Eventually they stopped on the top of a lone mount. Luke dropped the machine to the ground with a groan of relief and was instantly chided by Max for possibly breaking the equipment. Luke ignored his complaining teammate and started to eat lunch instead, which they had missed on Max's insistence.

Max grumpily turned his back on Luke and started setting up the machine: checking it for damage, connecting the signal detector into the back of it with thick wires, turning a knob here, pressing a button there. Luke licked mustard off his bottom lip and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand as Max sat back with a pleased, 'done.'

'Great,' Luke said, adjusting the microphone on top of the machinery. 'Is this on?'

'I think it is,' Max said, prodding it so that it was directed at the top agents, 'it's constructed from all the communicators microphones so it should be powerful enough to pick up our voices, but I wouldn't be sure about how well they receive it due to dodgy wiring.'

'Fine,' Luke sighed, 'can you put us through?'

'Give me a sec,' Max murmured and he began to type.

* * *

Frank was swivelling in his desk chair wondering what to do. He had once had a desk job like this, before he became head of training. He had hated it. But since his team was on holiday, Frank had nothing to do. He had been given a week off and then was asked to come in and fill in roles of agents who were taking time off.

Currently, he was supposed to be checking the files of agents under the MI High program and the progress they had made. Frank knew firsthand the progress of one team; the others took him less than half an hour. He had filled in a section adding that, although they had the Trio mission taken off them when given it originally, the young spies had stepped up to the mark and backed the Trio, ex-MI High spies Blaine and Daisy and fellow MI High agent Carrie in rescuing teammates and beating SKUL.

Now he was bored!

Frank was just considering sneaking down to the inventions department and asking Raymond if he had anything to rocket power his rubbish bin across the room, when Stark strode it.

'Ch-chief Agent Stark!' Frank spluttered, hastily taking his feet off the table and sitting upright, 'what's seems to be the problem?'

'We have been receiving an unknown, untraceable, unreadable signal from somewhere,' Chief Agent Stark informed him.

'Is it dangerous?' Frank asked, lacing his fingers together over the desktop.

'It has disrupted our conference talk with CIA operatives,' Stark growled, 'it is taking up all our communication lines. We need it to stop and we need it to stop now!'

'I'm on to it! I'm on to it!' Frank said hurriedly, jumping up from the chair and ducking out of the door, past an enraged Stark.

He ran down the corridor, skidding around corners, until he reached the major communications room. The Head of MI9 was waiting for him.

'What is this?' she asked, waving her hand at the main screen. It was humming slightly and across the screen was a piercing blue jagged line which was wavering up and down.

Frank strolled past her and through a door at the back of the room which led to the control unit for the communications room. He turned to the agent at the desk. 'May I have a go?' he asked politely.

'Be my guest,' the agent said, getting up to allow Frank to sit in front of the controls, 'I can't find it on any frequency.'

'Maybe it's not on a channel we usually use,' Frank muttered, pressing buttons and flicking switches. The humming increased then decreased then ceased, only to be replaced by a static buzzing. Frank rotated a dial and the static got fuzzier. He turned it the other way and suddenly, through the static, they heard a voice.

'It's not working.'

Frank turned the dial further. Part of the comeback remark was lost when he went too far, but Frank soon brought it back to what they could consider good. 'It will work you just got-' Static '-to do.'

Frank picked up the microphone on top of the control unit. 'Hello?' he said into it.

There was static filled pause from the other end. Finally someone asked, 'who is this?'

'This is Frank London,' Frank said, although Stark was now making gestures through the glass disconnecting the controls from the main room which clearly said that he wanted to speak to whoever it was, presumably to scold them for interrupting his important CIA meeting. Frank merely shrugged as if he wasn't sure what Stark wanted.

'Frank London,' the voice on the other end sounded relieved.

'Who's Frank London?' his companion asked.

'He's MI9,' the first voice said, reassuringly, 'this Shifter of the Trio. London, we have a problem.'

'Are my agents with you?' Frank said immediately, although Stark was now hammering on the glass door and rattling the door handle. Somehow, and Frank "didn't" know how, but the door had locked just when MI9 were receiving a message from the elusive Trio. Fancy that.

'Not here right now,' Shifter replied, 'but they joined safely.'

'How can I help?'

'It's SKUL.'

Stark had now broken in. he snatched the microphone off Frank and said, in an "I'm-now-in-control-no-matter-what-you-say-and-so-deal-with-it-okay?" voice, 'this is Chief Agent Stark speaking.'

'Chief Agent Stark,' Shifter interrupted evenly before Stark could say anymore, 'please let speak to someone with more brain cells than a monkey.'

'Actually…' the other person with Shifter said, but Shifter snapped, 'not now!' and they shut up.

'You will be speaking to me about any problems you may be having from this moment onwards,' Stark said in the "controlled" tone he used when he was close to blowing his fuse.

There was a moment as the two beyond the static conferred with one another. Finally Shifter said, 'fine.'

Stark sighed, pleased that he had won this battle. But he hadn't won the war, as he will soon find out. 'Go ahead,' he said, 'what is your problem?'

'SKUL,' Shifter said.

'Yes, you said that,' Stark said irritably.

'They're here.'

'And where is here?'

'Where we are.'

'That isn't helping me very much.'

'No-one can help you, Stark,' Shifter said calmly, 'you were just born thick.'

Stark sucked in air through his teeth, trying to control his temper which was rising again. 'Do you want my help?' he growled.

'Yours?' Shifter said, 'no, not particularly. I want this to actually succeed.'

Stark screamed in fury and smashed the microphone against the work surface. Everyone stared at it for some time. Then Stark said in a much more controlled voice, 'I'll go and another one, shall I?' When no-one contradicted him, he hurried out.

On the other end of the line, Luke and Max looked at one another. All they had heard was a scream, a loud bang and then a burst of static. 'What was that?' Luke asked.

'It sounded,' Max said slowly, 'like Stark having a tantrum and throwing the microphone against something.'

Luke grinned, pleased about the outcome. He quickly turned this into a thoughtful look when Max raised an eyebrow at him. 'Will that have affected us talking to them?'

'Not unless he broke something else.'

'Well,' Luke said decisively, redirecting his attention to the microphone, 'London, if you can still hear us, listen up. This is what we need.'

Stark returned to the conference room five minutes later with a new microphone. He missed most of what Shifter had said but did hear Shifter's companion, who Frank named as Oracle, say, 'thanks to the locators in your agents spy-pods, you should be able to follow us here. We would send you more details over this frequency, but I don't trust it to reach you because the signal here is dodgy and, actually, this frequency is probably easy to hack into.'

The communications agent finished hooking the new mike into the control desk. To Stark's annoyance, he then handed it to Frank. 'Thank you agents,' he spoke, 'sorry for the lapse in communications. Our old microphone was suddenly broken.' Stark glowered at him. Overhead they heard a sound Stark suspected as sniggering. 'Will be answering your requests immediately. London, out.' Frank pressed a button. The strange frequency disappeared and the chief CIA agent reappeared on the conference screen. He was bright red in the face and was angrily yelling at someone they couldn't see.

Frank got up to leave. Stark intercepted him. 'Where are you going?' he snapped.

'To help my team,' Frank said, brushing Stark's hand away, 'the Trio have requested MI9 support to help them against SKUL agents who have appeared in the area.'

'In that case,' Stark said superiorly, 'I should go.'

'But they are my team!' Frank protested, 'I refuse to sit at a desk in the knowledge that my team are in danger.'

'That's what you usually do,' Stark smirked, 'I don't see a problem with it at the moment.'

'I object-'

'You are not coming,' Stark yelled, 'and that is final.'

'Will someone please tell me,' the American on the screen drawled, 'what the hell is going on?'

* * *

Luke and Max dismantled the machine into smaller sections to make it easier to carry back. 'What is the probability that Stark will insist on leading the rescue team?' Luke asked.

'Very likely,' Max replied gloomily.

'And the chances that he will rub it in when he gets here?'

'Probable, if they haven't buried him under a rockslide first.'

'It is tempting, isn't it?'

'Yeah.'

* * *

The boys arrived back at the castle shortly after midnight. Lizzie had been waiting for them at the bottom of the cliff, after spotting them moving towards the sinister shape in the shadow of the mountain, for the last ten minutes. They didn't say much. Lizzie could tell from the boy's actions that they had been successful in delivering the message. She just held out her arms and lifted the three of them through the rock and into the lower basement.

Transporting machinery and three people in tiring work. So Lizzie woke Rose, who was up next on lookout duty, and the Trio went to bed.

They awoke to Jessica cooking them breakfast. Whilst they ate, Max and Luke filled them in on what had happened in the conversation, if you can call it that, with MI9.

'And then he smashed the microphone,' Luke said, 'it was hilarious. Well, not at the time obviously,' he quickly added when Jessica frowned at him. Carrie and Lizzie on the other hand were in stitches of giggles.

'They got the message okay,' Rose asked Max.

'Yeah,' Max said, scraping the bottom of the butter pot and then, peering in, 'We're out of butter.'

'We're running low on everything,' Jessica said, 'get used to it. We'll be rationing from now on.'

'How long until the food runs out?' Luke asked.

'If we add the dried food these guys brought us, and ration it carefully, I predict we'll be out of food by... tomorrow.'

'That's not good,' Carrie admitted. Lizzie glanced at the wall in the direction of the SKUL camp.

'I bet Alex has food.'

'It's too dangerous, Lizzie,' Oscar said.

'What have we got left to lose?' Lizzie asked, 'I don't fancy starving. Besides he won't kill me, even if they do catch me.'

'Are you sure?' Rose asked.

'Sure!' Lizzie said, waving her hand dismissively, 'he'll ransom me so that you hand over the formula and then he'll kill me!' The others looked at her, their faces were blank. 'Who really fancies staving?' They glanced at one another. 'Any last minute objections to me raiding the SKUL camp for food?'

Jessica raised a hand. 'Just an idea,' she said, 'do it tonight.'

'Why tonight?'

'Because they'll probably try another attack tonight,' Jessica pointed out, 'so whilst their attacking us, you can attack them.'

'Can you handle them without me?' Lizzie asked worriedly.

Luke coughed, slightly offended. 'You're not the only fighter in the Trio, you know.'

* * *

They agreed to wait until SKUL struck before Lizzie snuck into their camp. They also agreed that watches should no longer be made alone. So Lizzie and Oscar took the first watch, agreeing to only wake Rose and Max if it was not possible they could stay awake any longer.

They lasted most of the night, just talking, but finally Oscar surrendered to sleep and so Lizzie woke the next pair.

They roused the next morning to find Luke, Carrie and Jessica returning from their shift. Not a single peep from SKUL.

'Maybe they're trying to catch us off-guard,' Rose suggested as they sat at breakfast eating the last of their rations.

'Whatever they're planning,' Lizzie muttered, upending the packet to reach the last of the crumbs, 'I'll find out later. I don't care what you say, Luke. We need more food. I'll sneak into their camp about midday.'

The others didn't object for once. They knew too well the consequences if she didn't.

Lizzie returned about one, her arms filled with packets of food. 'They were well guarded,' she admitted as Jessica took them from her, 'but the idiots were letting their teammates take them when they were hungry. I just walked in and took a few. I had a mask on don't worry,' she added when Luke stared at her, worriedly.

'This will last us at least until the day after tomorrow,' Jessica mentioned, 'if we ration really carefully.'

'I could just sneak in again if we run out again,' Lizzie said lightly.

'No,' Luke, Jessica and Oscar said simultaneously.

'No,' Luke said again, 'that's not a risk we're going to take for now.'

'At least wait for when their attacking,' Jessica said softly to Lizzie when Luke had walked off.

But SKUL didn't attack that night, or the night after. 'What are they doing?' Carrie asked that evening as she Luke and Jessica sat on the steps midway through the first shift. Her stomach rumbled and Carrie rubbed it caringly. The Trio and Jessica had been trained to survive rationings as small as they had to make them. Oscar had trained himself, but Rose and Carrie were suffering under the lack of normal food. Carrie's optimism was definitely suffering.

'I know what Alex is doing,' Jessica said as she glared at the front door as if daring her brother to step through, 'he's waiting for his back up. More SKUL agents means more trouble for us.'

'How long until MI9 arrive?' Carrie asked Luke.

'If all is well, they may arrive tomorrow or the day after,' he said hopefully.

'But Stark is leading the team.'

'Yes,' Luke said with a sigh, 'and he managed to lose himself doing navigation in African salt plains on our training program. We were supposed to go from one side to another. He ended up in Kenya.'

There was a gloom filled pause.

'We're doomed,' Carrie muttered.

* * *

I'll update as soon as I can. Promise! :D


	13. Spy Tip 1  Know Your Enemy

Everyone have a good holiday? I've been away for most of it so have had no internet connection in order to post anything. Don't worry. I'm back now and ready to continue.

Sorry this fic is going so slowly. Not my favourite out of the three but it is essencial in order to raise issues and leads nicely into the last one which is going to be so good! I can't wait to start it. It's a lot more like The Trio than this one is, it will require you to try and guess what is going on and... no, I can't say more! It'll give it away!

* * *

Morale was suffering greatly as morning dawned. The only thing that was nice to see was the sunrise. The rest of the early hours showed empty food packets, agents exhausted from lack of sleep (despite the shifts, no-one slept well in the knowledge that SKUL was sitting on their doorstep) and a line of grey dressed figures marching up the slope.

'Are they what I think they are?' Rose asked Jessica as the pair watched the troop climb the last few steps and enter the SKUL camp.

'Yes,' Jessica confirmed bitterly, 'SKUL backup.' She was about to move away when she heard a shout go up in the far off camp and turned back. 'What's going on?'

They watched little figures running about on the cliff and then a gun sounded. The two girls exchanged glances. 'What was that about?' Rose whispered.

Jessica's eyes widened and she glanced over her shoulder at the people still trying to sleep. Luke, she knew, had given up and was somewhere above them. Max was in the lower basement. But there was someone else missing from the beds.

Jessica paled. 'Where's Lizzie?' she said quietly.

There was a resounding clang from downstairs which woke Oscar and Carrie from their light sleep. Then came the sound of voices. Jessica leapt over the mattress Carrie was just rising from and raced down the stairs, followed shortly by Rose and later by the two groggy agents.

Lizzie was sitting amongst a small pile of food packets, nursing her left hand. 'Drat,' she was muttering to Max as Jessica jumped the last few steps, 'it's started bleeding again.'

'I told you not to push yourself too much,' Jessica said crossly, striding over to her older sister and taking her hand in hers.

As Jessica undid the bandages to see how bad the damage was, Lizzie murmured, 'yes, well, I don't fancy starving. I didn't expect the SKUL troops to arrive. SKUL guards might not be able to recognize me, but Alex can spot me at a distance in the middle of a crowd. And he just had to emerge to greet the new arrivals as I was exiting the food tent. Bad timing on fate's part, I must say.'

'You weren't shot were you?' Rose asked cautiously.

Lizzie tilted her head to one side, a smile playing around her lips. 'That is a very good point,' she said, 'I know Alex was shooting at me, but he definitely didn't hit me. So who did he hit, I wonder?'

She didn't get a chance to wonder any further, because Luke ran in through the secret passage to the first floor. 'What happened?' he snapped.

Everyone looked at Lizzie. 'SKUL arrived,' she said simply.

'I mean, as SKUL arrived,' Luke said as he strode the length of the lab.

Lizzie shrugged. 'I got caught sneaking out of the SKUL food tent with food for us,' she said, putting a lot of emphasis on the last part, 'because we haven't got any.'

'And you chose to do it now?' Luke bellowed.

'Actually,' Lizzie said, 'I chose to do it at four in the morning, about two and a half hours ago. The only reason I'm so late coming back is because the stupid SKUL guard thought I was coming to relieve him of his shift, not of his food, and so made me sit inside the tent guarding the food supplies. I thought, at the time, great, now I can take as many as I want. But I had barely picked up more than three when the real SKUL guard appears. I told him I was on this shift. He asked why. So, stupidly, I said that it was because Alex was upping the number of guards on everything in anticipation of the arrival of the SKUL backup. He believed me! I've been stuck in a tent listening to the woes of a SKUL agent for the last two and a half hours.'

Lizzie rubbed one side of her face wearily. 'Not pleasant when he thinks that the most important thing is the pain he has on his disgusting feet which he insisted on showing me! I only just managed to stop myself from hitting him by thinking how many packets I was sneaking out,' to demonstrate, she pulled one out of her top and then out of her left boot, 'however I could,' she added as they all raised their eyebrows. 'And when I think I could escape, Alex walks out at precisely the moment I do and bang goes my cover. I only just managed to escape.' She frowned, 'it's hard to run when there's food packets stuffed all over your person.'

Rose leant down and picked up one of the said food packets. 'How many did you get?' she asked, despite Luke's slowly reddening face behind her.

Lizzie shrugged, 'I'm not sure. Didn't really stop and count. Too busy dodging SKUL agents and bullets.'

Rose weighed a couple in either hand. 'How long do you reckon these could last us?' she directed the question at Max after turning and spying Luke's building rage.

Max picked up a few and did a quick calculation. 'At the most,' he said, 'three days. That is severely rationed.'

'I have more,' Lizzie said brightly.

'Where are they?' Max asked, reaching out for the packets Rose was holding and counting the ones Lizzie had already revealed.

'Well,' Lizzie turned slightly pink, 'I'm definitely sitting on a couple.'

They stared at her. 'You'll eat those then,' Carrie said.

Jessica finished cleaning the reopened scar on the back of Lizzie's hand and re-bandaged it. She got up to put the first aid kit away and came face to face with Luke, who was breathing slowly and deeply.

'Ah,' she said slowly, 'I expect you want to speak with Lizzie. Alone?'

'That would be nice,' Luke agreed, lifting his head to look Jessica in the eye.

Jessica nodded, quickly grabbed a couple of food packets and then said to the room at large, 'come on everyone! Breakfast is upstairs!' and on a second thought, 'who is on lookout? Oh! Bother!' She threw Carrie one of the packets and raced up the stairs in the direction of the main hall.

Max mumbled something about not guarding alone and followed her. Rose, Oscar and Carrie quickly vacated the hall. They had barely reached the top of the steps when the shouting match started.

* * *

Breakfast was not the most fun meal they had had, nor was it the most pleasant of foods, but it was food at least. The row ended about seven, but no-one ascended the stairs. Oscar left it ten more minutes before going down to see if Lizzie was still there. She was, kicking the packets on the floor into a heap. She was very pink still.

Oscar made a point of staring at the pile as he walked in. 'Is that all of them?' he asked casually.

Lizzie looked up. Her eyes were red. 'I think so,' she said in a small voice, slightly hoarse from shouting, 'I don't feel any more on me.' She nudged the last one in and then said slowly, 'do you think what I did was wrong?'

Oscar thought for a moment. 'No,' he said at length, 'I don't think getting food was wrong, I think hanging around was.'

Lizzie frowned. 'That was unintentional.' She sighed. 'When is Stark getting here?' she complained to the world at length.

Oscar shrugged. 'You know him better than I do,' he admitted, 'you're guess is better than mine.'

Lizzie sighed, 'Trust Stark to be late.' She wiped her nose on the back of her hand, and then remembered the company she was in and so looked around for something to wipe her hand on. 'You know,' she said conversationally as she turned her back on him, still searching, 'Max said he would arrive about now.'

Oscar raised his eyebrows. 'Did he?' he asked.

Behind him, Carrie snorted with laughter. 'Trust Stark to be late to a prophesied time!' she giggled.

'Hi Carrie,' Lizzie said, dropping an oily cloth and stepping back into the room, 'when did you arrive?'

'When you turned the conversation to Stark,' Carrie explained, 'Rose sent me; she said that you might want to see this.'

The two agents followed her up the stairs to the floor above. Halfway up the stairs, Carrie stopped and turned to Lizzie. 'Do you even think that he will arrive tonight?'

Lizzie nodded, 'yes. I trust Max's predictions more than I trust Stark's timekeeping.'

'I mean, he must be good at them to have the codename Oracle,' Oscar added.

Lizzie debated that before saying, 'I think that that is a matter of opinion: whether he is good at prophesying and all. He can be amazing, but he can sometimes see or hear things that he can misinterpret. That this for example, Max said that Stark would be here at sunrise. But what if Max actually saw the sunset and misinterpreted what was happening.'

'He got something right, in a way,' Carrie said, beginning to climb again, 'SKUL arrived this morning, didn't they?' Another thought struck her and she stopped again. 'Is that why you went to get food this morning, Lizzie, because you thought that MI9 were arriving?'

'No,' Lizzie admitted, 'I went and got food because I woke up at four in the morning, couldn't sleep, decided to have an early breakfast and discovered there wasn't anything to eat.'

They reached the top of the stairs and joined Rose at the gap in the wall. Rose waited as they gathered around her before pointing across at the SKUL camp. They squinted across at the troops, who appeared to be taking down tents.

'What are they doing?' Carrie wondered aloud.

'It looks like they're packing,' Lizzie said. She frowned. 'Why would Alex pack up now?'

'Maybe the SKUL backup saw Stark in the mountains and have warned Alex about the MI9 aid,' Rose suggested.

'One: I doubt very much that Stark could scare anyone, particularly my brother, into leaving,' Lizzie said, 'and secondly: Alex would make an attempt to attack us if he really was planning on leaving.' They watched a party of SKUL agents depart down the hill. 'Where are they going?'

'Who knows?' Carrie said.

Lizzie chewed her lip thoughtfully. 'I'm going to tell Luke about this,' she said at last, 'we might be about to be attacked. Battle stations everyone.' The three agents nodded as she hurried away. Carrie giggled, 'battle stations.'

Oscar sighed. 'Come one,' he said, 'we might as well get ready.' They followed Lizzie up to the entrance hall.

They met a worried Jessica and Max coming the other way. 'What's going on?' Jessica asked anxiously.

'SKUL are preparing for something and Lizzie's gotten worried,' Rose explained, 'Am I with you defending the first floor?'

'Me or Luke,' Jessica said, 'fair point. Let's find out.'

They arrived at the foot of the staircase as Lizzie and Luke jumped the last few steps. Luke instantly took charge. 'Oscar, Carrie, Jessica and Rose,' he ordered, 'I want you to find the water guns from the last raid. I know that there's not much water available, but I do know that there is plenty of oil. I want you to fill your guns up with that and report back here when you have completed it.'

Carrie was the only person outside of the Trio to be surprised by Luke's sudden change. She had witnessed Luke in mission-mode before when saving Rose, Oscar and Sally (the youngest Evens sister) a couple of months back.

'What are we doing?' Lizzie asked.

'We are the front line,' Luke explained, 'we're the ones SKUL will be up against.'

'Heaven help them,' Jessica muttered sourly as she descended with Oscar, Rose and Carrie to retrieve the guns.

Luke waited for them to be out of sight before turning to Lizzie. 'I want you to get the formula and keep it on your person,' he said, 'and if it looks like we're going to lose, I want you to get them out of here.' He raised a hand as Lizzie began to protest. 'We can't rely on Stark and we can't allow Alex to get his hands on those plans. Get them out and get them to Stark. Understood?'

Lizzie glared defiantly at him but then her gaze weakened and she nodded. 'Understood,' she whispered and looked away towards the castle entrance.

On Luke's command, they waited at the base of the staircase.

And waited.

And waited.

* * *

About four thirty in the afternoon, something collided with the barricade across the door. Everyone jumped and stared as a second thud hit the door and then a third.

'Coat the ground with oil,' Luke instructed the younger agents, 'really thick. And then get to the midpoint in the stairs.' They did as he told them, making sure the ground was wet with oil. Carrie began to slip, but Lizzie caught her before she could properly fall.

'Get ready,' Luke called as the door began to give way and then, as it did, 'Lizzie, Max, defense test 003.'

Lizzie gave a burst of laughter as SKUL agents poured through the doors and into the room. 'That was a good day,' she said as they skidded and slipped across the floor and then ran forwards.

Her foot hit the first oily patch and glided forwards. Lizzie began to skate across the oily surface. She glided like an ice skater, scooping up balls of oil and throwing it in the faces of the agents. She kicked legs from beneath them, slid them into arm locks and dodged their wild punches. She laughed as they tried to stand and tut-tutted them when they aimed their guns. 'Silly SKUL,' she said, 'you're coated in oil. Pull the trigger and you all burst into flames. Not a smart idea.'

She was soon walking back to Luke and Max, who were easily finishing off the SKUL agents Lizzie had overlooked. No sooner was she back with them then they heard him.

Alex was standing the other side of the room, clapping. 'Well,' he said, looking at the groaning agents on the floor, 'looks like you have beaten my men, again.' He sighed melodramatically. 'Oh, dear, what am I to do?' His eyes glinted.

'We win, Alex,' Lizzie said, 'pack up and go home. MI9 will be coming soon; you cannot hope to survive an onslaught from your camp outside. Why don't you just leave whilst you have the chance?'

'Ah,' Alex said slowly, 'I thought there was something. You see, I don't plan on staying outside. No. I thought of making camp,' he looked around him, 'in here.' He sniffed as he examined the floor. 'We'll have to clear this up of course.'

'But we're in here,' Max said pointedly.

'Guys,' Rose said slowly. Something had been bothering her. 'The SKUL agents you've knocked out. They don't look like the backup that arrived this morning. There's too few of them.'

'So where…?' Jessica began before several things happened. The first thing was that SKUL agents ran in through the main doors shouting something about MI9. Beyond them, the Trio could faintly make out Stark's voice shouting, 'Stay where you are! This is MI9! Stay where you are!' Alex twisted round and slammed the doors shut as the last SKUL agent scrambled through.

The second thing was that SKUL agents began to swarm down the steps from the second floor. Oscar, Jessica, Carrie and Rose turned and began firing out of shock as the SKUL agents descended upon them. The Trio turned in horror as Alex began to laugh.

'Oscar!' Lizzie cried, 'Jess!' She started to run up the steps towards the struggling agents, followed swiftly by Luke and Max.

'I knew that you would keep them back,' Alex laughed, 'not totally out of the way, but out of the way enough that they are not in danger. The Trio was always going to be the first line of defense with "superpowers". Not much use are they though when the attack is not head on. I know you too well,' he chuckled as Luke cursed and knocked down three SKUL agents in one blow to give Jessica room to lash out.

Luke and Lizzie's eyes met as the two tried to help their friends. Luke nodded.

'Retreat!' he called to Oscar, Carrie, Rose and Jessica as he and Max vaulted the banister to keep SKUL agents from descending into the lower levels from the ground floor. The four nodded. Jessica jumped down to help the boys as the three spies beat back the advancing SKUL lines and ran to the first floor entrance. As the girls ran ahead, Oscar looked back.

'Lizzie!' he yelled.

Lizzie had fought her way in the opposite direction and was now balanced on the balcony on the other side of the stairs, nearest the cliff wall. Somewhere in the back of Oscar's mind, something said that this would be the perfect time to escape as all attention was now on her, but his loyalty (and partly his curiosity) grounded his feet.

Lizzie found her balance and looked down at Alex. 'Alright Alex,' she said calmly, 'I admit, you win this round. But even if you break into the lower part of the castle, you will never find the formula. Because I have it here,' so saying, Lizzie pulled the scraps of fragile paper out of her jacket and held them high above her head, 'and I'm giving it to the last person on Earth I would ever consider giving something this valuable, but I have no other choice.'

She glared at Alex and said levelly, 'you might have trapped my friends down in the basement, but you are trapped in here by MI9, don't deny it to yourself. Now you can make it very easy for everyone and surrender…'

'Never,' Alex hissed.

Lizzie gave a small smile. 'I thought so,' she whispered. She turned her head to face the oncoming SKUL agents and met Oscar's gaze. Her smile froze and she stared at him in horror. "Get out of here" said her eyes "go! Run!"

'Get her!' Alex screamed.

Lizzie kicked out at the, admittedly hesitantly, approaching SKUL agents and then turned the kick into a backwards somersault off the balcony – and through the wall.

There was the briefest of seconds before Alex screamed in fury. Then he spied Oscar.

'Oscar!'

Oscar found himself being dragged backwards by Carrie as Alex directed the SKUL agents after them. They ran to the secret passageway which Rose was holding open. They were just in time; the wall had just sealed shut as the first SKUL guard rounded the corner… and kept going.

Behind the wall, the three spies sagged with relief. Then hurried down the steps to see what had become of the other three.

Luke was sitting with his arm around Jessica on one side of the room. Max was seated around the cooking fire, but he wasn't cooking anything and he didn't seem to be cold. They had dragged the mattresses down but hadn't touched them since.

'What about the door?' Carrie asked worriedly when they saw them.

Luke shook his head. 'We piled some of the filing cabinets in front of it and then covered them with a special concoction of Max's. They won't be breaking through there anytime soon.'

'Special concoction?' Rose asked Max. He managed a grin. Rose shuffled her feet. 'Do you fancy showing me?' she asked with a blush. They left together.

Oscar collapsed on a mattress. 'Lizzie got out,' he told Luke, 'with the formula.'

'Good,' Luke said, 'so she can follow orders.'

The others stared at him. Luke shrugged. 'Lizzie hasn't got the strength to get us all out of here using her power. It's hard enough with three of us. I thought that if the worst came to the worst, she could at least get the formula to safety.'

'What about the metal bars?' Carrie asked, 'the ones SKUL were using to climb in here. Can't we…?'

'No,' Luke interrupted gloomily. 'After the last attack, I had Lizzie push them all out so Alex didn't try that again. Clearly, he found another way.'

'Probably got his men to abseil down the cliff and climb in through the towers,' Jessica said, 'don't you remember the giant hole in the roof of the smaller tower? Probably came in through that.'

'That's a lot of men to climb down a very steep cliff,' Carrie commented.

'Sounds like something Alex would ask them to do though,' Jessica said glumly, 'I think he made me do it once as part of my "training". Without ropes too, I think.'

'We're stuck here now, are we?' Carrie asked unhappily.

'Yeah,' Luke replied.

There was a depressed silence, broken only by the distant whispers of Rose and Max and the pounding of SKUL upon the door.

* * *

Finally things have heated up. I will try and update soon!

:D


	14. Spy Tip 2  Know Your Surroundings

After this, two more chapters to go. I'm really excited! :D

This is when everything gets a lot more interesting.

Disclaimer: I own the Trio, Jessica, Alex and the Professor. I do not own Oscar, Rose, Carrie or the idiot. I mean Stark.

This chapter focuses primarily on Max and Rose. Enjoy!

* * *

Nothing was going right for Stark today. Before dawn that morning, he had been woken up and told that the slope they had camped on was a ski resort during the winter and a hiking camp during the summer when there was no snow. He had been chased down the hill by a little old woman who ran the camp with her sons, his men following at a more leisurely pace. They had gotten lost several times over the course of the day and, now they had discovered the castle, they had had the doors slammed in their faces by some smirking SKUL agents. And then Lee had emerged.

Stark said often that he could barely remember his training days. The truth is he remembered them all too well. He particularly remembered the smarmy little toddlers who had been on the course with him, who had been the favourites of all the teachers because of their young age, had taken every opportunity to laugh at him, then taken _his_ job in MI9 whilst he had remained a lowly grunt.

And worst of all, when they failed after only completing five missions outside of their training, everyone started acting like they were massive heroes. They had gone and blown up one of their own teammates, what was heroic about that?

Yet somehow, she had really been alive and, somehow, had managed to regain the body of a seventeen year old. Come to think about it, they all looked very young, again. Personally, Stark didn't believe the child spies story that the Trio were really superheroes and had superpowers. He thought the whole thing ridiculous. He had no idea how the head of MI9 could believe such garbage. She'll believe that he wasn't worth his job next!

This however, this was payback, payback for all those years of tormenting and teasing him, laughing and jeering at him, scolding him and mocking him. Suddenly, they needed _his_ help; suddenly, he was the one in charge.

Despite that, Lee was shouting at him.

'What on Earth took you so long?' Lizzie demanded as she materialized from the side of the cliff. Many of the MI9 agents with Stark jumped, but Stark had seen that trick before. It's all done with mirrors, he told himself calmly.

'We're here exactly when we're supposed to be here,' he said, trying to keep his voice level. But if there was one thing Stark could not do when around any member of the Trio, it was keep his temper.

'Yeah, Ma- Oracle said,' Lizzie scowled.

Stark did his best to smile. Another of the childish tricks, believing that Oracle knew everything.

'Ah, yes,' he said through clenched teeth, 'and how is the know-it-all?'

'Don't call him that,' Lizzie snapped, 'and he's probably not doing too well. Thanks to you, they are all now stuck in the basement with SKUL hammering on the door.'

'And how is that my fault?' Stark cried out, finally losing it, 'I was just doing my job...'

'Did you assess the situation before calling the attack?' Lizzie asked.

'Now hold on...' Stark began, thinking desperately.

Lizzie turned to another MI9 agent. 'He didn't, did he?'

The MI9 agent shifted from one foot to the other. 'Not exactly,' he muttered.

'Right,' Lizzie said, turning her onslaught back on Stark, 'so you failed the first task. Since you didn't assess the situation, you wouldn't have seen that the focus of the attack was upon the castle, something obvious to anyone who stops and looks.'

'I did notice that,' Stark quipped hurriedly, trying to reclaim some brownie points.

'Then you surely,' Lizzie said slowly and clearly as if she was talking to someone much dimmer than her (No need for that tone, Stark thought), ' must have realised where we were, that we were under attack and that if you attacked SKUL from behind, true it would have been trapping them if there had been more of us, we would also have been trapped. We are only seven in number and we were surrounded too. What were we going to do?'

'Why didn't you try any of your... hocus pocus that those child spies insisted that you had?' Stark shouted.

It went deathly quiet.

'Hocus pocus,' Lizzie repeated quietly. Every other MI9 agent took one step away from Stark. Stark shrank away from Lizzie's glare. 'Stark,' Lizzie spat, 'don't you dare mock what I can do. I've been through pain to be where I am today, physical and emotional pain, and I'm not going to let some upstart of an agent who thinks that he's top cat because he has some silly title put me down like that. You have no idea what we have had to do. You have no idea. And the worst thing is you've only brought that up because you have no leg to stand on in this argument and you know it!'

Stark raised himself to full height, puffing out his chest. 'I have two very good legs, thank you very much!'

'If they're so good, why didn't you get here sooner?'

A mutter spread amongst the other agents.

Stark tried to glower, 'I…'

'No, Stark!' Lizzie said, sounding like she was scolding a disobedient puppy, 'you have no legs, quite literally.'

Stark was about to ask her if she was blind, if she hadn't looked down if a while, tried to lift a leg to wave it in her face, but found that he suddenly couldn't move them. And why was Lizzie taller than him for some reason?

Stark looked down and yelped. He could see his thighs but round about his knees, his legs had disappeared into the rock below. He panicked, causing him to sink lower into the rock. He glared at Lizzie who was looking remarkably cool despite the fact her opposition in the argument – albeit, Stark wasn't much opposition, he could still be counted _as_ opposition – was not knee deep in stone.

Without looking down at him, she strode past and into the crowd of MI9 agents who were standing around waiting for orders. 'Start setting up camp,' she ordered.

Most of the waiting MI9 agents began to do what she said. Half of them remembered the Trio, remembered that they were high ranking agents within MI9; the rest did what she said because, despite her youth, she sounded like someone with authority, and had just made Stark look like an idiot (although, that's not difficult).

'Excuse me,' Stark snarled. He sank another inch into the stone but continued undaunted, 'I am leading this mission trip.'

Lizzie whirled around and stood so she was nose to nose with Stark (or nose to female chest in Stark's case). Lizzie stared levelly at him for a long time before her face brightened and she said in a tone practically dripping of honey. 'Okay, Sir, what do _you_ suggest we do?'

Stark stared back, chest puffed out, chewing on the inside of his cheek with fury. At last he barked, 'make camp.'

MI9 agents glanced at one another before continuing with what they were doing. Stark glowered at Lizzie. Lizzie returned his gaze until he dropped his head and grumbled into his chest. Lizzie smiled triumphantly at him before patting him on the head and adding sweetly, 'glad we can come to some agreement.'

Stark muttered a reply. Lizzie clearly heard it because the next second the earth was spitting Stark out and onto the rocky terrain. He scrambled to his feet, brushed down his shirt and resisted, with difficulty, sticking his tongue out behind Lizzie's retreating back. Then he strode off to try and set up his own tent.

* * *

Rose touched the substance on the door gently with one finger. It was cool to the touch. It looked, Rose thought, a lot like hardened slime; a yellowy green in colour, it had been moulded around the filing cabinets pushed up against the door to the main hall. Max explained that it hardened instantly on contact with water.

'The best thing is,' he explained as Rose examined his creation, 'is the inside is still viscous so it absorbs more force therefore there is less of a chance of the harder outer shell cracking.' He smiled shyly, 'we've also used it to trap guards or SKUL agents inside because the inner substance contains packets of oxygen which means they can breath for up to twenty minutes and, if you don't harden the entire outer layer, it will keep absorbing oxygen from the air and providing it to the person contained within.'

'Brilliant,' Rose complimented him, 'why doesn't MI9 use it more often?'

Max blushed as she praised his work and told her quietly, 'it's very hard to make correctly and difficult to do in big batches: higher risk of water getting in. I only made a small amount when at MI9, but I have had ten years almost to correct the recipe.'

Rose found his blush cute. 'I'd love to see it some time,' she said with a smile. Max grinned and pushed his wire framed specs back up his nose. They stood awkwardly, trying to catch each other's gaze, but looking away the instant they did.

'Oi, Lovebirds!' someone shouted from further down the hall. The two geniuses turned to see Carrie strolling up towards them.

'Lovebirds?' Rose queried as Max said, 'we're not... we're not!'

'Oh, no!' Rose said as Max petered into silence. They stared in opposite directions, both pink.

'Ok,' Carrie said slowly, nodding as if she understood, 'Ok, if you say so. I just came to say, you're needed. They're deciding what we're going to do now. Come when you're ready,' she added and hurried away.

Rose and Max turned back to one another, each looking at the other's feet.

'We'd better go…'

'Yeah…'

'Nice work…'

'Oh, thanks, yeah…'

Without looking at each other, they descended and walked as quickly as possible to the lower level.

'Finally,' Luke said as they arrived. Rose and Max, without glancing at the other, walked quickly in opposite directions to sit at different sides of the group gathered in the large chamber.

'Right,' Luke said, 'as you are aware, Lizzie has gotten the formula out of here. She is now with Stark, who is going to be of not real help whatsoever; let's face it, if anyone is going to come up with a plan to get us out of here, it's going to be us.'

'What can we do?' Carrie asked, 'SKUL are right outside the door. We can't go round the secret way because that leads back to SKUL too. And if we find a way of getting out of here, SKUL would come after us, because they knew we have the formula.'

'Carrie's right,' agreed Oscar, 'if we do manage to get out of here, SKUL will just follow us until they get those plans. We need to destroy them; in way that makes it obvious to SKUL that there is no way they could have survived.'

'That's it, Oscar,' Max said quietly, 'that's exactly what we need to do.'

'How do we do that?' Jessica asked, 'how do we make it clear to SKUL that the formula's gone but not kill ourselves in the process.'

'I'll work on that,' Max said.

'Right,' Carrie said, 'that still leaves the problem with how do we get out.'

'If Alex knows we are going to destroy the formula, he will first attempt to stop us by breaking in here. If that fails then he will evacuate all SKUL agents from the area to avoid them being caught by MI9. If we can get him to move out before we destroy the formula, we can walk out of here afterwards, provided that Stark will stand at the entrance of the castle to stop Alex from ambushing us once we are out.'

'Which now solves the problem with how are we going to get out,' Luke murmured, 'and replaces it with "how are we going to get Alex to move out"?'

Max tugged at his companion's sleeve, his face a mask of thought. 'I have an idea,' he said slowly, 'but it will require Lizzie.'

'We'd better discuss this with her then,' Luke said after studying his teammate's face for some time.

'How are you going to get out?' Rose asked as the two stood up.

Luke grinned. 'Fortunately for us,' he said, 'we know this area a lot better than Alex does.' He turned to Max who was still thinking, now examining the machinery in the corner. 'How's your head for heights coming along?'

'Hmm, yes...' Max murmured, then seemed to hear the question and looked around, 'huh? What?'

* * *

'No!' Max said firmly, 'No! No no no no no!'

'Oh, come on!' Luke said, hanging from the roof of the second tallest tower, 'it's not as hard as you think it is!'

'This is insane!' Max cried out, 'This is madness! This is…'

'Exactly how SKUL got in,' Luke interrupted, reaching down with one hand to his terrified teammate, 'come on! I'll give you a hand.'

'You know I hate heights!' Max complained.

Luke put his hand back on the roof again. 'Yeah,' he said conversationally, as if he wasn't hanging on with barely any footholds and a fifty foot drop below, 'yeah, that does seem to be one of your downsides.'

'One of them?' Max said in a small voice, peering over the edge of the window.

'The others are mostly around the fact that you are a complete know-it-all.'

Max turned back Rose and Jessica, who had accompanied them to the top of the tower as moral support. 'What do you think about this?' he demanded.

Jessica shrugged. 'It seems pretty logical to me,' she said, 'we can't go through SKUL because they're making sure you can't time stop your way out; we can't go under SKUL because Lizzie's in the other camp; going either side of SKUL results in a sheer cliff face; so you have to go over SKUL, the only unguarded territory.'

'Cheers,' Max said quietly. He looked thoroughly disheartened.

Rose patted him on the shoulder. 'You'll be fine,' she told him reassuringly, 'Luke will look out for you. I'm sure you've been in worse situations.'

Max opened his mouth to say that only once had he ever had to face a drop this big before, a rope bridge over a deep gorge, and he had had Lizzie right behind him telling him if he didn't move it, she'd throw him over the side. Before he could start that story, Luke cut it, 'Can you hurry up your decision? My hands are beginning to hurt.'

Max took a shuddering breath and thanked Rose for her encouragement. Breathing deeply, he stepped up to the window.

Luke was nowhere to be seen.

Max leaned out as far as he dared to see if he could see the smashed remains of Luke far below when something brushed his hair. Max yelped.

'Don't make so much noise,' Luke scolded, leaning over the roof edge, his hand outstretched. 'Are you coming?'

Max took a deep breath and nodded. Luke waved the hand at him. 'Take it then!'

Max grasped the offered hand and stepped out of the window, onto the ledge. For one dizzy moment, he thought Luke was going to let go and send him tumbling backwards, but then Luke was directing him on where to place his feet and soon Max was sitting on the slanted roof beside Luke, panting heavily.

Luke grinned and peered back over the edge. Jessica and Rose were leaning out of the window. 'I've got him,' he reassured them, 'you two better start making your way back to the others. Use the rope ladder to go down the second level hole to the first floor and then take the secret passageway.'

'Just like we did to get here,' Jessica said, rolling her eyes, 'we know, Luke.'

Luke lent further and whispered, 'and please don't beat up too many SKUL agents along the way.'

Jessica gripped the inside of the window and stood up on the ledge to kiss Luke. 'I'll try not to,' she said as they parted. Luke grinned and they both withdrew.

'Max?' Rose called as the two Trio members stood up on the slopping roof.

'Yeah?'

'Um... Good luck.'

'Thanks,' Max said, 'you two.'

Then the girls hurried away.

The boys stood on the top of the second tallest tower, looking down at the outer battlements which were bathed in silvery moonlight. A cold thin breeze blew about them, catching the edges of their jackets and Max's mid-length hair.

'Remind me why we had to come all the way up here?' Max asked.

'Because,' Luke said, 'Alex will no doubt have a guard watching the large hole in the side of the castle. As he is aware, there are two ways out of the basement area-'

'He is?' Max said in a panic. Luke looked at him flatly. He had forgotten how little Max thought when several metres off the ground.

'Yes,' he said calmly, 'he's tried to get in both ways.'

'What? When?'

'You do know what I'm talking about don't you?'

Max shook his head.

Luke sighed. 'I'm referring to the door from the hall, the one you did a brilliant job of sealing, well done. The second "door" is the gaping hole in the side of the first floor? The one SKUL tried to get through before Lizzie stopped them with a water gun?'

'Oh,' Max said, sounding very relieved, 'that door!'

Luke rolled his eyes. 'He believes if we ever try and get out, we'll try going that way. That's why he has snipers positioned ready to shoot us down if we try.' He pointed to the higher tower. If he squinted, Max could just make out a gun barrel, black against the moon.

'But we did come out that way,' he murmured.

Luke sighed again. 'No, Max,' he said, 'we came out of the first floor hole which is over there.' He pointed to the northern end of the castle. 'Can you see where that second floor roof tile juts out slightly? That's where the rope ladder is. That tile hides us perfectly from anyone looking out of the tower.'

'How do you know about all this?' Max asked as Luke clambered over the roof to the other side of the tower.

Luke paused. 'Do you remember at the start of all of this when we had gotten stuck and were waiting for Oscar, Rose and Carrie to arrive?' Max nodded. 'Do you remember that Lizzie and I were practically fighting to have time with Jessica?' Max nodded again, but it took a while longer. He hadn't really gotten involved with that fight. Luke sighed. 'Obviously, Lizzie gets priority because she's Jess' sister. So I was left with not much to do. I decided, because I knew you wouldn't and Lizzie was currently occupied with catching up on the missing nine, ten years, to explore up here.'

'You are aware that you could have fallen to your death at any moment?' Max queried.

Luke waved a hand carelessly. 'You would have caught me if I fell.'

This puzzled Max. 'How?'

'Let's get moving,' Luke continued briskly, deciding it was better for Max's sakes that he didn't answer. He strode to the edge of the roof and reached outwards to the sheer cliff either side. He gripped and swung out onto the rockface. He began to descend, then realised that Max wasn't following him.

He looked up at his frozen companion. 'Come on!' he hissed.

A small voice replied, 'you have got to be kidding me.'

'No, get moving!'

'Just the cliff...'

'And me below you. If you fall, I'll catch you.'

'And what if you fall?'

'I won't! Come on!'

'Couldn't we... use a rope? Tie ourselves together?'

'What rope? We used the last of it to make the rope ladder and you were complaining then that the gaps between the rungs were so big.'

'They were.'

'You managed that. You can manage this.'

'I think I'll go back.'

'Fine,' Luke said and continued to go down.

There was a short pause.

'Luke?' Max said.

'Yeah?'

'I can't climb down into the window.'

'Oh dear,' Luke said sarcastically.

'Will you come and help me?'

'Max, look over the edge.'

Max did so. 'Oh,' he said, 'you're a long way down.'

'Yeah, I'm not coming back up.' There was a pause. 'Since you couldn't get through a window,' Luke said at long last, 'it's good you didn't attempt this. It would have been way too difficult for you.'

There was another pause. 'I don't know what you mean.'

'Course you do,' Luke continued, trying to ignore the screaming muscles in his shoulders, 'this is way too hard.' He climbed further down. It was becoming trickier; his muscles were aching. He didn't dare look over his shoulder to see how much further he had to climb.

'Too hard, huh?'

Luke heard the clink of metal on metal. He glanced sideways to compare how far he had climbed to the wall of the tower. He couldn't work it out and so called back up, 'Max?'

'Yeah?'

'How much further have I to go?'

Max peaked over the edge. 'Not much further.'

'Could I jump?'

'Only if you're careful.'

Luke braced himself against the stony wall and then pushed off as he let go. He seemed to fall for a much longer time that he wanted before he hit the parapet below. A spasm went up both legs as they bent to try and lessen the force, but Luke still found himself on his hands and knees, wincing.

The sound of metal on stone brought him back around. It was faint, but Luke's hearing had always been better than others. He glanced up at the highest tower first, almost expecting a gun to be pointed his way, but both SKUL agents on watch had their back to him. One was smoking and they were both leaning over something papery. Safe in the knowledge he wasn't going to be spotted anytime soon, Luke looked up.

Was it his imagination or was Max really climbing down the side of the cliff?

He was joined by the brainiac a few moments later. Max saved jumping until he was two feet from the stone wall before letting go. He smiled at Luke. 'Alright,' he said, 'maybe that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.'

Luke gaped at him. 'How?'

Max held up his hands. Clipped around the third and fourth fingers, starting at their base and reaching over them, was a curving metal claw. Max held up his feet and demonstrated the metal prongs sticking out of his boots. 'They make it so much easier,' he said conversationally.

Luke gawped. 'That's cheating!' he said at last.

Max shook his head. 'You just said I had to get down, you didn't really say that I couldn't help myself. I have just done it my style.'

'Well, you'd never get through airport security with those on,' Luke muttered, turning away and hurrying across the ramparts towards the front doors of the castle.

Lizzie was waiting for them at the bottom. 'What took you so long?' she asked. Then she noticed Max's additions. She goggled. 'What are those?'

'Later,' Luke said crossly, 'we've got a plan for how to get everyone out and destroy the formula.'

'Really?' Lizzie said, intrigued, 'how?'

Max coughed and stepped forwards.

'We,' he said, 'are going to blow up the castle.'

* * *

:D

Please review!


	15. Spy Tip 3 Always have a Plan B

Second to last chapter, I hope you like it. Hopefully, it's not too overdramatic, but hey, who cares?

**Disclaimer: The Trio and Evens Family are mine**. No-one else is.

Warning: very long. Took over 10 A4 pages on word so, yes, very long. Sorry.

* * *

'Go through that with me one more time,' Stark said. 'I call this Alex guy and offer him a truce, the formula for the child spies-'

'And the Trio,' Luke added wearily.

'But you're here.'

'But we're not meant to be which is why Lizzie is taking us back, to start work on the bomb and generally keep an eye on SKUL.'

'Right. Then we pack up and leave to give SKUL room to move out.'

'Yes.'

'Why can't we stay here and arrest them as they come out?'

Luke stared at Stark as if wondering how anyone could be so stupid. 'They wouldn't come out otherwise.'

'Ah!' Stark said like he thought of something Luke hadn't, 'but we can camouflage ourselves with the cliff face so they wouldn't see and then they would think that we've gone.'

Luke raised his eyebrows. 'You can do that?'

Stark waved a hand in Luke's general direction. 'It's the same way that you and your friends disappear. I've seen it hundreds of times. It's all done with mirrors.'

'Really,' Luke said, trying hard not to laugh. He didn't bother to correct the Chief Agent, just asked, 'tell me Stark: where are you going to find a big enough mirror?'

That got Stark. Whilst he was floundering for a reply, Lizzie returned. 'Max is back with the others,' she told Luke, 'he's going to explain it all to them and then they'll start working on the bomb.'

Luke nodded.

As Lizzie was speaking, something got Stark's attention. 'What are they going to use for explosive material?' he said triumphantly.

Luke and Lizzie stared at him. 'This is Max we're talking about,' Lizzie said, 'and he's in a lab with Rose Gupta, surrounded by all sorts of chemicals. I think that they can come up with something suitably explosive.'

'Besides,' Luke added, 'it doesn't have to be that powerful; if positioned right, it could bring the whole place down.'

Stark's face contorted as he tried to think of a good comeback. Failing that, he resorted to moping mode. 'I don't like my role,' he complained.

'You don't have to like it,' Lizzie snapped, 'you just have to do it. Understood?'

'Yes,' Stark grumbled. He was still grumbling as he left with his next set of orders.

Lizzie collapsed into his chair. 'I'm getting tired of him already and he's barely been here six hours.'

Luke chuckled. 'Thankfully,' he said, 'we may be rid of him soon.'

Lizzie opened her eyes. 'Do you want me to take you back to base?' she asked.

'No,' Luke said, 'it's alright. I'll climb.'

'No, really,' Lizzie said, starting to get to her feet. She met Luke's hand halfway up.

'You're tired, Lizzie,' he said, cupping her face with his hand, 'you're wearing yourself out. Go to bed. You'll need your rest for... tomorrow.'

Lizzie sighed and nodded. 'Well, if you're sure,' she said reluctantly.

'Stop complaining,' Luke said jokily, 'you're starting to sound like Stark.'

'No need to get insulting,' Lizzie muttered, trudging out of the tent. Luke smiled after her, looked about him and stretched. He could feel sleep threatening to dull his senses and numb his brain. I need to get back, he thought, or I'll fall asleep where I'm standing. He felt the chink of metal in his pocket of the claws Max had lent him. The foot prongs wouldn't totally fit over his bigger boots, but would help the climb up all the same.

Lizzie stood silently outside the tent, waiting for Luke to depart. She waited until she could see his silhouette walking in the direction of the castle before slipping back into the tent. She stood on the other side of the flap that acted as door. The inside of the tent was very basic, nothing but a few chairs and a table. This was the tent Stark had allocated as meeting tent and storage for food. Glancing in that corner, Lizzie noticed that there wasn't much of that left.

She crossed to the table and drew up a chair. On the top of the table were a few pieces of paper and a pen. Slowly, hesitating, Lizzie picked up the pen and, after a moment to think, began to write.

* * *

The morning dawned with a loud thumping on the front gates of the castle. Alex gestured with his hand and one of his men jogged across the hall to answer it. Behind him, the lines of machine guns readied themselves.

The conversation was brief and soon the man was back. 'Sir,' he said, saluting, 'the MI9 agents have called a truce. They are offering the formula for the spies.'

Alex turned to stare at him. 'Is Lizzie really that desperate?' he whispered. Then he raised his voice, 'decline the offer.'

'Sir!' The officer saluted again and disappeared. He returned moments later fairly pale.

'They say if you don't send them out, we're coming in to get them.'

'Did they now?' Alex smiled, 'then they're more foolish than I thought.'

'Well...' the officer added uncertainly.

'What?'

'They didn't exactly say that, sir. It was your... Lee, sir. She said to let them out, or she'll come in, sir.'

'That is an entirely different matter,' Alex snarled, striding around the staircase towards the door. He froze.

Lizzie was standing in front of the doors. There were no smiles as brother and sister faced each other. Lizzie tilted her head.

'No welcome, Alex?' she queried.

'Not for you,' Alex retorted. He eyed the line of machine guns and wondered about firing.

'You know there's no point,' Lizzie said, watching him closely, 'it won't work.'

'Why are you here?' Alex asked.

'I'm here to advise you to accept the trade.'

'Why should I do that? You know we can't get through to your friends, therefore how are we supposed to trade them.'

'Their safety is all we want assured.'

'And how does MI9 know that we will keep our promise?'

'They are giving you the chance to walk out of here freemen,' Lizzie said brusquely, 'it is against my better judgement that I am allowing them to let you go. But if you hurt my friends, or break your word in any other way, be certain that MI9 (and me) will attack with vengeance.'

Alex glared at her thoughtfully. 'We shall then accept your terms,' he said after a while.

'Thank you, Alex,' Lizzie said before departing through the wall.

'Foolish girl,' Alex muttered after she was gone, 'continue trying to break through!' he ordered the SKUL agents clustered around the stairway to the basement.

* * *

'He's accepted,' Lizzie said as she emerged. She joined Luke who was standing beside Stark, who didn't look excited about the prospect of meeting the infamous Alex Evens. 'All set?'

'Nearly,' Luke said, 'we've just got to hope that they don't break through the sealed door.'

'They won't,' Lizzie said reassuringly.

* * *

There was a crack in the seal. Max examined it closely. Just as he had foreseen, the membrane was crumbling with every thud against the door.

'We need to block the second staircase,' he said, clattering down the last few steps into the lower lab. 'Oscar, Carrie, can you do that?' The pair nodded and headed up the steps. 'I'll send Luke up to help you when he comes back,' Max added as they left.

He hurried back to Rose. She was fiddling with some of the final pieces of the machine before them. 'How's it coming along?' Max asked cautiously. The last person who asked Rose a question was Jessica offering her something to drink and she was still wincing from the ferocity of the retort.

However it appeared as though all the energy had been drained from Rose now. 'I can't get it to work,' she said tearfully, 'there just isn't the right pieces left. It won't fit. I can't do it.' She buried her head in her hands.

Max gently stroked her hair away from her face. 'Maybe,' he whispered, 'you're not meant to.' From the other end of the lab, Jessica looked up at him in horror.

Rose's expression was similar when she emerged from behind her hands. 'What do you mean?' she asked in a hoarse voice.

'Trust me,' was Max's only reply. When he had gone, Rose and Jessica shared a look of utmost despair.

* * *

Stark met Alex at the gates. Stark told Alex that there would be a parcel waiting for him at the bottom of the cliff but he had to collect it himself. Stark then told him that MI9 was packing up and when they returned in two hours to pick of the "child spies", SKUL better not be in the vicinity. Alex thanked him for the threat and then slammed the door in his face.

* * *

Luke helped Oscar put the last filing cabinet into place. On the other side of the door, Carrie activated her water gun and the gel that had been spread over her side of the filing cabinet barrier hardened instantly. Luke smeared gel over their side and then let Oscar spray it. With the gel barrier on both sides of the entrance, Max had assured them that SKUL would not be breaking through when they needed the space.

Oscar and Luke worked their way between the remaining cabinets to the hole in the wall. Luke stuck his head out and checked that there were no guards in the tallest tower. Sure enough, it was empty.

'Let's go,' he muttered to Oscar. Oscar nodded and slung the rope from around his shoulders.

'This would be a lot simpler if we had Lizzie,' Oscar muttered as Luke judged his aim at the upper levels.

'We have got to stop relying on Lizzie's walking-through-walls gift,' Luke grumbled as the grappling hook on the end of the rope clattered against stones above them and fell down into the ravine. Careful not to look down, Luke wound the rope back in and threw again. 'If we wait for Lizzie, we will practically have no time between SKUL getting the fake formula and coming after us and we need to be ready to move when that happens.'

'We're not planning on blowing up SKUL as well?' Oscar said cautiously as Luke tugged on the rope which had caught on something to check it was firmly trapped. It skittered across stones and back down towards them.

'Course not,' Luke snorted, looping the rope once again over the wall. This time it held firm.

Oscar watched Luke clamber up the rope first. He hadn't liked Luke's expression when he replied.

'We are warning SKUL at what we're doing?' he said when he was on the first level too.

Luke looked around in bewilderment, 'why?'

'They should be given a chance,' Oscar complained.

Luke shushed him, hurriedly opening up the passageway entrance to the basement. Oscar heard the footsteps approach as he shut it behind him.

'Why aren't we warning SKUL?' Oscar demanded as they descended the steps.

'Why should we?' Luke demanded back, 'they should be wise enough to take Stark's offer and get out whilst they can.'

'Don't believe this!'

'When did you go soft? This is SKUL!'

'They are still human beings!'

'They follow SKUL!'

'They're following orders!'

The two boys were face to face, glaring at each other, when Jessica appeared. 'What's wrong?'

Oscar rounded on her. 'Did you know Luke's not going to warn SKUL about the bomb?'

'We're not meant to warn SKUL?' Jessica said, trying to keep the question out of her voice.

'I don't see why we have to,' Luke snapped, striding angrily past her. Oscar went to follow him when Jessica caught his arm.

'Don't worry about it,' she whispered.

'But...?'

'Just forget about it.'

'How...?'

'Forget about it!' Jessica said warningly. She gave Oscar a meaningful glance before hurrying after Luke.

Carrie joined Oscar who was now looking depressed on a bench. 'Got back alright,' she commented. Then she spotted Oscar's expression. 'What's wrong?'

'I feel guilty because Luke won't warn SKUL about the bomb. I can understand if it was just Alex but... there are so many people up there, most of them are probably just following orders.'

'Don't feel bad, Oscar,' Carrie encouraged, 'I don't think that Jessica would allow this to go ahead if there wasn't going to be some sort of warning.'

'I hope you're right,' Oscar murmured.

'Aren't I always?' Carrie asked.

* * *

Stark and Alex faced each other on different sides of the castle doorway. Agents on either side glowered at their opposition, trying to psyche out the opponent. It was clear that the calm, silent MI9 agents were built for this type of staring competition; they had the kind of nose that they could gaze down and, even with sunglasses on, give their enemy a look that said "I'm bigger, tougher and stronger than you; don't even try".

Stark had clutched in his hands a tube. It was meant to protect the delicate papers, he had been told, and so he told Alex. Alex eyed it hungrily.

'Do you give me your word that you will be out of here within the hour?' Stark asked in his most "I-am-in-control-of-this-situation" voice.

Alex needed no such tone. 'Two hours,' he said calmly.

'I thought we agreed one,' Stark snapped, starting to break.

Alex grinned. 'If you hadn't noticed, sir,' he said gesturing around, 'we are big in number.' Stark looked around and gulped. The SKUL agents took the opportunity to sneer at him. 'It will take us some time to clear up. Besides, don't you need to get out of the way first?'

'An hour and a half,' said a strident voice and Lizzie emerged from the crowd of MI9 guards, 'no arguments, Alex!'

Alex glared at his younger sister. 'Understood,' he said coolly.

'Fine,' Lizzie sighed, 'hand him the formula, Stark.' She watched as Stark passed the tube to Alex, with the same air of an athlete passing a baton to his teammate.

As Lizzie had anticipated, Alex opened the tube as soon as he had it. There was an intake of breath from Stark. The plan had been to leave it empty.

To Stark's amazement, Alex pulled out and scanned a page of notes. He nodded as if satisfied and replaced it into the tube. 'Wonderful,' he said, glittering eyes fixed on Lizzie, 'I'm not sure you understand the importance of what has just happened.'

'I understand,' was the reply.

Alex's eyes narrowed, but he didn't press the matter. He stepped back into the crowd and with a signal, the doors slammed in their faces.

Stark snorted. 'That went well,' he commented sarcastically.

Lizzie turned to the waiting MI9 agents. 'Commence packing,' she ordered.

'Hold on!' Stark barked, 'wait until my orders!' Lizzie raised an eyebrow as Stark took a deep breath, paused and then seemed to deflate as he said, 'start packing up.'

She rolled her eyes and strode towards the cliff wall. 'I don't know why you bother.'

'What...' Stark began. Lizzie turned. 'What if SKUL won't leave?'

Lizzie paused, 'they'll go.'

'How can you be so sure?' Stark asked. 'It's not like they know about the bomb...' his voice trailed away. Lizzie had that look in her eye again.

'Yeah,' she said, 'well... let's just say Alex has great intuition about these sorts of things.'

* * *

Alex ordered the agents to get back to work on breaking through the spies defences. He sat on the steps and opened the tube again. He tipped the papers onto his lap and fingered them lovingly. Finally, his lifelong dream would be in his grasp.

There was a loud cracking noise and a cheer. An ecstatic SKUL agent – clearly new to the team, Alex thought – hurried around to tell their boss that they had finally broken into the basement.

'Well why are you still here?' Alex asked sweetly, 'get down there and drag them up fools!'

As the SKUL agent scurried away, Alex returned his attention to the pages before him. There were lots of complex symbols so clearly this was a complex formula. It must be, Alex thought, it holds great power.

His eyebrows furrowed as he examined one page. It was filled with a familiar scrawling handwriting. It was only when he spotted Lizzie's name at the bottom did he realise it was hers. He was about to rip the paper up when he spotted a note written on the edge, at the exact angle so it was horizontal with his eye line: "DON'T RIP THIS UP IDIOT!"

Alex turned the page and read along the next edge: "THIS IS IMPORTANT!"

"Alex,

We're not the best of friends, and we've stopped calling each other family, but we do still call Jessica sister, right? That's why I'm writing to you. I made a promise to my sister.

Don't bother with the rest of the formula on these pages. One's a very complex way of making custard, another method is making Jelly. On one page is a recipe for a chocolate cake with lots of complex equations and symbols for why it should be baked at gas mark 5 and why you should add salt. And I hope you understand not to put radium anywhere near H2O as it says on the last.

Don't bother going after the formula. We're going to destroy it. The plan is to leave it in this castle and then blow the castle up.

You have at least an hour. Get out whilst you can.

Your not-so-loving sister,

Lizzie"

Alex sat on those stairs for five minutes staring at this page. He double checked the rest of the pages to check what the letter had said were true. Now he looked carefully, he could see the faults in the scrawls. How could he have been fooled?

They were planning to blow up the castle.

Alex leapt up, sprinted down the stairs and into the basement. He could see the pinpricks of light as the SKUL agents scanned the floor, searching for another way in other than the far stairs which were blocked by filing cabinets and the same rock hard barrier.

They had known...

'Stop what you're doing!' Alex ordered. The men below him froze. 'Get everything together. Anything useful here you find, bring it. We're leaving!'

The men gaped at their leader as he turned briskly and left the basement before staring at one another. Why the sudden change of plan?

* * *

'They're leaving,' Lizzie said as she emerged.

'Right,' Luke nodded, 'and we're set to leave. Max, Rose, prepare the bomb.'

'We've given Alex an hour and a half,' Lizzie explained to Luke as they hurried to their belongings on one side of the room, the little they had, 'no doubt he will be out before then.'

'Good,' Luke said, 'the sooner he's out, the sooner we can leave.'

'Yes,' Lizzie said flatly.

'They're not going to go, you know,' Oscar mentioned as Luke moved away, 'they've already broken through the first barrier. They're going to keep trying to get in until the very last minute.'

'No they won't,' Lizzie said firmly.

'Lizzie,' Oscar said desperately, 'Luke hasn't warned them about the bomb, they believe...'

Lizzie turned and looked at him. Oscar stared at her for a long time before he said gently, 'oh. That was good of you.'

'I did it for Jess,' Lizzie said, moving away.

'Of course you did,' Oscar nodded, following her.

They gathered around the bomb at the far end of the room. It was giant, bulky engine, with wires and dials and a giant lever sticking out of the side of it. Luke's plan was to move it into the middle of the room and everyone had glared at him when he suggested it. It looked like it weighed a tonne.

'It should work,' Max said as he watched Oscar, Luke and Carrie push the monster machine and Lizzie and Jessica tug at it, 'but it's not going to be very powerful so it needs to be positioned carefully.

'Couldn't you have thought of that before you built it?' Carrie asked, panting heavily.

'I didn't realise it was going to be this... big,' Max admitted.

'Great,' Carrie muttered to Oscar beside her, 'just great.' Oscar gave a breathless chuckle.

'Stop,' Rose said when they reached the place they believed the bomb should have been built. Stepping back they could understand why Max and Rose had built it to one side; in the middle of the room, it was nothing but a nuisance, blocking everyone's way and tripping people up with the thick wires, the handle jutting out and into the clear space people could have used to move around it.

'What's this for?' Jessica asked, tapping the big arm with one finger.

'Don't touch that!' Max shouted, 'that's the way of triggering the bomb.' Everyone took an immediate step backwards.

'I thought there was going to be a timer,' Carrie exclaimed.

'We didn't have the right pieces,' Rose explained sadly, 'the technology here is too out of date. It's a miracle the machine could be dismantled to build this.'

'Not that any of us are disappointed to see it go,' Jessica murmured. Everyone glanced to where the giant scorpion shaped device had stood.

There was a pause. 'Doesn't that mean that someone has to stay behind to trigger the bomb?' Carrie observed after a while. Lizzie, Luke and Max exchanged glances.

'Yes,' Max admitted after a slight lull.

'Who's that going to be?' Oscar asked, staring at Lizzie.

Lizzie gave him a lopsided grin. 'I've survived a bomb once,' she said, 'I can do it again.'

'No, last time you were nowhere near the bomb site when it went off,' Oscar corrected her.

'It has to be me, Oscar,' Lizzie said pointedly, 'me and Max are the only two that have a chance of getting out before the bomb went off. My gifts are less precise than Max's but if I misjudge, I am more likely to survive than Max.'

Oscar could find no hole in her argument so closed his mouth slowly. Lizzie turned her back on him guiltily. She knew just because he wasn't saying anything now didn't mean that he accepted what they were doing. She took from her pocket a few fragile sheets of paper, the real formula. She brushed them gently and then placed them on the top of the bomb.

'They can't survive from there,' she said. Everyone else gathered round to stare up at the cause of so much trouble.

'Amazing, isn't it?' Carrie remarked, 'how a few bits of paper could cause all of this?'

'That's just what I was thinking,' practically everyone else said.

Rose's communicator buzzed.

'They've left,' Stark said, 'are you coming now?'

'We're on our way,' Rose responded.

'Stark?' asked Luke. Rose nodded. 'Let's go then.'

Oscar hung back to speak to Lizzie as the rest started the climb up the secret staircase. She was adding something else to the pile of papers. 'What's that?'

'It's nothing,' Lizzie tried to say causally, but Oscar lent over her and picked it up anyway.

'This is your file,' he said sadly, leafing through the pages, 'don't you want to keep it.'

'What's the point?' Lizzie said bitterly, 'all my family's dead.'

'Not even...'

'I want none of it, Oscar!'

Oscar gazed at his grief ridden friend before pocketing something and then placing the paper delicately back on top of the bomb. 'Happy?' he asked. Lizzie shot him a poisonous glance but calmed down considerably.

'Be careful,' he said as Lizzie leaned against the bomb as if it couldn't detonate any second, killing them all.

'Aren't I always?' Lizzie asked sarcastically, kicking off the bomb to move towards him. The bomb clanked and groaned and then a cog near the bottom fell off. There was a pause in which Oscar raised his eyebrows at Lizzie. 'It's meant to do that,' Lizzie said in the end, 'that piece isn't needed anyway, that's why it's near the bottom.'

'Like I said,' Oscar continued, 'be careful and, Lizzie, please try and survive.'

'Yes Oscar,' Lizzie said in the same tone of voice someone might accept a telling off from Mr Flatley. Oscar rolled his eyes but didn't comment.

'Oscar! Come on!' Carrie yelled down the staircase.

'Go!' Lizzie cried out, shooing Oscar towards the passageway. He glanced back once more to see Lizzie desperately trying to slot the cog back into the machine, giving up and then hiding it behind her back when she spotted him staring, presenting him a large smile of total innocence. 'Go on!' she called out, before the panic set back in and she frantically tried to shove the little piece back in again.

Oscar leapt the stairs two/three at a time, emerging at the top slightly out of breath but not far behind the others. They were waiting for him in the main hall anyway.

'We were getting worried that you were going to stay behind,' Carrie joked, getting behind Oscar and pushing him onwards just in case he changed his mind.

As he was pushed past, Max said to Oscar, 'she knocked the cog off, didn't she?'

'Yeah,' Oscar managed to reply as Carrie soldiered on.

Max laughed. 'And that's why the random piece was there,' Oscar heard him say to Rose as he was pushed out of the doors, held open by Luke and Jessica, 'so that Lizzie would sit up and pay attention to what she was doing, didn't want her accidentally setting the bomb off before we've gotten out.'

Then they were out into the glorious sunshine. Oscar, Carrie, Rose and Jessica, who had been underground more than the Trio, winced and raised their hands to shield their faces from the sunlight. Luke wasn't stopping. He carried on, down the slope, determined. The others had to hurry to keep up.

Stark had positioned his men on the mountain opposite. The group had just climbed up to them and were being surrounded by MI9 medicals, when an almighty KABOOM shook the area. Rubble from the smoking castle tumbled down into the valley. Towers crumpled, walls collapsed, dust wafted up as the flames spread.

'There is no way that the formula could have survived that,' Carrie said gleefully.

Oscar glanced sideways at the silent Luke, Max and Jessica. 'Could Lizzie?' he asked.

'Theoretically,' Max began.

'Theoretically,' Oscar snapped, growing angry, 'theoretically, she wouldn't have had to risk it. We all know that there must have been another way, but you had to do everything with style!'

'We wanted to destroy all evidence,' Luke said with no emotion.

'No,' Oscar corrected, 'you wanted to destroy everything that reminded you of your pasts. Did you take your files or did you let them be destroyed like Lizzie did, to ensure that ever part of your history has been erased?'

There was a surprised glance between the boys before they each pulled out their own wad of paper. 'But Lizzie has the darkest history out of all of us,' Max said, 'I'm not surprised that she was willing to let her file be destroyed.'

'She is out?' Oscar insisted.

'Relax,' Luke said carelessly, pulling out his communicator, 'I'll call her.' There was a pause in which Luke tapped a pattern on the rock beneath his feet. 'Lizzie?' he asked. There was another pause. 'Lizzie?' He lowered the communicator, 'Nothing.'

'What does that mean?' Jessica asked nervously.

'She's dropped her communicator and it has been destroyed in the explosion,' Max said, 'she's stuck in rock or she's...'

'Don't say it,' Oscar hissed. He grabbed Max's jacket and hauled him against the rock wall behind them, 'tell us she's alright!'

Max twisted Oscar's wrists until the bigger boy let go. 'As I'm not going to be around to finish this sentence,' he said, brushing himself down, 'I can safely say that she...'

Max vanished just as Oscar reached for him. Spinning round, Oscar saw that Luke and Jessica had disappeared too. He cursed.

'They're down there, Oscar,' Rose informed him, leaning slightly over the edge of the mountain, staring down into the gully, 'who's that waving?'

Oscar ran to the edge and peered over. He counted the figures down below and let out a deep sigh of relief. One of the little people in the valley was waving enthusiastically up at them but as Oscar raised his hand to respond, they disappeared.

'What kind of goodbye is that?' Carrie asked.

Oscar knew. It meant "see-you-soon".

* * *

One more chapter, then we're onto the final fic.

I thought I might do something similar to the information chapter I added to the end of "The Trio" so if anyone have anything they want clearing up, tell me and I can add into that chapter.


	16. Results

Final chapter. This is the end of the Trio Together. But don't worry. Fic 3 coming soon!

Disclaimer: I don't own MI High, but I do own Lizzie and Evan.

* * *

August: Oscar sat in the crowd gathered at St Hopes to see off the year 11 pupils. Mr Flatley had insisted on a big send off so had organised this "prize giving". They basically sat on plastic chairs gathered in the assembly hall and was presented their GCSE results by Mr Flatley and Mrs King formally on the stage. Oscar saw no point in it except that he got to see his friends again for the last time that summer before September.

Oscar was getting very nervous about the upcoming September. His dad had agreed that he, Rose and Carrie could join his organised spy training programme. He was starting his own spy network in partnership with MI9. The idea was that Edward Dixon-Halliday collected the best prospective agents, trained them to beyond the best and then lent them to MI9 when they needed an expert.

Oscar craned his neck to try and spot his friends. Carrie and Rose were seated near the front with Gloria. They both had their hair down, dressed casually. Oscar caught Scoop casting Rose sideways glances and smiled. There was a tug on his arm and he looked across at Avril who was seated next to him with a bored Evan.

'Can you see her?' she asked in a whisper. Oscar knew who she was asking about. Evan had asked after her too the moment he spotted Oscar.

'No,' he whispered back sadly, 'there's no sign of Lizzie.' Avril's face fell and she looked back towards the front. Lizzie's disappearance from her orphanage was still a mystery to most of her friends, even if the orphanage did not seem concerned.

Names were being called out. Oscar had to let Avril out and then follow her towards the stage. He slouched and scuffed his feet, not meeting Mrs King's eye when he thanked her and turned to head back to his seat – and almost walked into her.

Lizzie was approaching the stage to collect her results. Most of the audience's eyes were upon her (not only because most of the audience lived at her old orphanage and was wondering where she went) but because her attire was so unlike the Lizzie everyone else knew. She had her hair scraped back into a high ponytail. She was dressed in tight black denim trousers with long black boots, a tight white top underneath her black leather jacket. She raised an eyebrow at Oscar as he passed him and gave him a brief smile before mounting the stage to get her results.

'That's…' Avril began as Oscar rejoined her.

'I know,' Oscar said back. Muttering broke out in the crowd as Lizzie collected her letter, descended the steps and strode down the middle of the audience to the back where she leant against the wall and opened her results package.

'We can catch her at the end of this,' Avril planned, 'hey, Oscar, what did you get?'

Oscar tore his eyes away from Lizzie to open his letter. He scanned his results. '5 A's, 3 B's and 2 A*'s,' he listed. He examined Avril's; she had done alright, 5 A's and 5 B's. Evan opened his, snorted and tried to scrunch it up, but Avril snatched it off him and opened it.

'3 B's and 7 C's is not bad,' she said supportively.

Oscar turned his head to glance back at Lizzie before clapping when Carrie was called up. After a few speeches by Mr Flatley and Mrs King, they were dismissed. Carrie and Rose instantly made a b-line for Oscar.

'How did you do?' Carrie asked as soon as they got close. Oscar handed her his sheet in return for hers. She had done almost as well, with a couple less A*'s but more A's. 'Rose got nearly all A*'s, predictably,' Carrie said amused as she gave Oscar's back.

'I got one A for French,' Rose said defensively.

'Did you see Lizzie?' Carrie asked in a hushed voice.

Oscar nodded and turned to find Lizzie in the crowd. He spotted her backing away after talking from Avril and Evan. She was shaking her head and looking slightly panicked. 'I'm going to talk to her,' he said decidedly.

He began to force his way through the crowd and reached Avril and Evan as Lizzie disappeared the double doors towards the front door. 'How rude!' Avril was exclaiming, 'all we wanted to know is where she went, as friends!'

'Maybe you should have been a little less pushy then,' Evan muttered. Avril rounded on him. Oscar didn't hang around to listen to the lovebirds fighting. He ran onwards after the disappearing figure.

'Lizzie!' he yelled, but she didn't slow down. Eventually, he burst out of the front doors. There she was, waiting for him in the school playground. She smiled.

'Hello Oscar,' she said calmly.

'Why did you leave?' he demanded, 'without saying goodbye.'

Lizzie shook her head. 'Believe me, Oscar,' she said sadly, 'I wanted to, but there were so many reasons not to. Firstly, we sent SKUL packing so they didn't ambush you and the MI9 agents. Then when we did that, we found clues that machinery parts were being manufactured for SKUL so sent off to find out if they were true. We can't have a repeat of last time.'

'When you got "blown up",' Oscar said with raised eyebrows.

'Exactly,' Lizzie said, 'although the truth is slightly more horrific than that. Think about it, if SKUL had the needed machine pieces and the formula, they could make Alex's army of super powered agents.'

Oscar looked away. 'So is that where you're going now?' he asked.

'Yes,' Lizzie admitted, 'Luke wanted to follow our lead immediately.'

'But you're here,' Oscar pointed out.

'Yes,' Lizzie said with a smile. Luke felt he understood. He grinned. Lizzie's face became serious. 'Besides, I need to ask you something.'

'What?' Oscar asked distracted, feeling in his pocket for something.

'I need you to take care of my little sister,' Lizzie said.

Oscar nodded. 'I can do that,' he said, 'Sally and I are great friends.'

'No,' Lizzie said slowly, 'my other sister.'

Oscar blinked. 'But Jessica is going to be with you.'

'Actually,' Lizzie said, bouncing on the balls of her feet, 'Luke won't allow her to come with us. So I pulled a few strings and she's joining you on your dad's course.'

Oscar nodded. 'I see.'

'Please look after her Oscar,' Lizzie pleaded, 'I don't want to lose her again.'

'Hey, I promised didn't I?' Oscar said. Lizzie sighed and hung her head.

Then she looked up and asked casually, 'so what are your results?' Oscar showed her, 'an A* in French and German, well done. And PE, well that's understandable. Carrie got that too, didn't she?'

'Yeah,' Oscar grinned, 'I beat Rose in French.'

Lizzie laughed. 'And I beat you then,' she said turning her sheet around. Oscar scanned the list of A*'s and A's and whistled.

'You are thirty though, aren't you?' he said.

'Shut up,' Lizzie said, playfully punching him on the shoulder. 'I'm not thirty, I'm sixteen. I've just been on Earth for thirty years.'

'That makes you thirty,' Oscar said pointedly.

'Twenty eight years,' Lizzie corrected then crossly added, 'I look sixteen, I act sixteen, can't we just call me sixteen?'

'Fine, sixteen,' Oscar exclaimed, holding back a laugh. He finally tugged the paper free of his pocket and held it out for her, 'this is for you.'

'What is it?' Lizzie asked playfully, taking it and opening it. Her face fell and tears began to well up. She reached for her neck and pulled her mother's pendent free of her shirt. She looked up at Oscar. 'You took it from my file,' she accused.

'It was written for you,' Oscar said.

'It should have burnt with it,' Lizzie cried out, tossing the paper aside.

'It's the last message from your mother,' Oscar said, picking up Jenna Evens' letter and placing it in Lizzie's hands, closing them around it, 'don't throw your last reminder away.'

Tears were now streaming down Lizzie's face. She ripped her hands free of Oscar's gentle grip and threw them around his waist, burying her face in his chest. Oscar, when got over the initial surprise, began stroking her hair as Lizzie sniffed and snuffled.

'Thank you, Oscar,' Lizzie mumbled when she had finished crying.

'Its fine,' Oscar heard himself saying, his mind still reeling from the sudden change in emotion. I'd hate being a girl, he was secretly thinking. He glanced over Lizzie's head. There was a black jeep with blacked out windows parked at the gates. 'Who's that?'

Lizzie turned her head and stared in the direction Oscar was gazing. 'Luke I don't doubt.'

'Is he waiting for you?'

'Yes,' Lizzie sighed, 'I need to go.' She gave him a quick hug and began running across the concrete towards the exit.

'Wait,' Oscar yelled after her, 'when will I see you again?'

'Soon, I promise,' Lizzie responded, the wind nearly whipping away her answer, 'hopefully when this threat is over.' She was barely in the car when the jeep began to move.

Oscar was joined by Rose, Carrie and Frank as they waved her off. 'Your dad is meeting us soon,' Frank informed him.

Oscar grinned. 'Let's go then,' he said.

'A new adventure waits,' Carrie said happily as they headed in the opposite direction, towards the staff car park. Frank had offered to give them a lift to the pick-up point.

'That sounds very cliché,' Rose commented.

'It's true, isn't it?' Oscar chuckled.

* * *

Yes, it is true.

I'm doing another Clarification chapter, so if you have any more questions about the Trio, feel free to ask.

Look out for the last in the Trilogy of the Trio:

**The Trio Triumphant**

**Coming Soon! (Well, next year)**

**REVIEW!**


	17. The Trio  Family Histories

Final, official, chapter! Last fic I had a query on families so I thought to do that this fic.

**Claimer: The Trio are MY characters, and so are their families.**

* * *

Name: Luke Jones

Codename: Shifter

Age: 20

Adopted: Harry and Molly Jones

Occupation: Ex-MI9 agents, now run an orphanage for the young children of MI9 agents who have gone missing in action. Named Luke and raised him like a son when he arrived with no family history.

Luke's History: Luke spent thirteen years with Sally and Harry Jones and the children they fostered, many of whom became like brothers and sisters to him. Most of the children stayed no longer than a couple of months as Harry tracked down possible family members for them to stay with. Despite MI9's wishes, there were always a regular number of children staying with the Jones'. They were thrilled when Luke was accepted into the MI9 training programme for "young adult" agents, although Luke admitted not being straight about his age (to be fair, he say that he was twenty years and 64 months and no-one really noticed until they had sent off his acceptance letter by which point they were too impressed that he had gotten away with it to deny him).

Now: Mr and Mrs Jones have since retired from looking after younger children. Luke regularly visits them and they complain about his apparent eternal youth, but in a fond way. He stayed with them for a while during his search for Lizzie and heard about the mission to reunite the Trio through them. At the grand old age of 70+, they still insist on an active life and are irregularly found in their cottage on the northern moors due to the expanse of moorland that surrounds them.

* * *

Name: Max Hardy

Codename: Oracle

Age: 19

Adopted: Victor and Cassidy Hardy

Occupation: Professors of Engineering and Mathematics

Max's History: Growing up with the Hardy family meant that Max was surrounded by numbers and puzzles which, the Trio believe, helped enhance his brain. He had always been destined to be smart; growing up with two university professors for parents seemed to confirm it. It could have been a lonely childhood, but Max hardly noticed because his head was nearly always stuck into yet another book or struggling over yet another puzzle. Sometime during his ninth year with the Hardy's, Max vaguely remembers Cassidy being pregnant and giving birth to Max's little sister Annabelle, but not that well due to the latest advanced engineering book Victor had given him for Christmas and his latest gadget project. It was his marvellous mind and high engineering qualifications that made MI9 – who had worked with Max's parents on a small number of occasions – to accept him into their training academy. Max was the youngest on the programme at fourteen exactly. He didn't see a lot of little Annabelle but loved his sister very much and was devastated when SKUL used her (and his parents, he was upset about them too) to sabotage his last mission with Luke and Lizzie.

Now: being kidnapped by SKUL was one of the most traumatic experiences that happened to Annabelle. Another was, after being rescued by a man she thought was her brother, being told by Luke (who had pretending to be Max) telling them that her brother was lost and Lizzie was dead because of him. Victor and Cassidy moved away from London to York to try and start again, but Annabelle's heart remained with her brother and she was determined to clear his name. She had seen the look upon his face when he was told of the deal – destroy the Trio or watch your family die. She had been amazed that he had chosen them over his friends. She joined the MI9 training programme as soon as she was old enough and joined MI9 soon afterwards. She worked in the research department in MI9, researching locations, theories, suspects and always keeping track of SKUL's movements. Her ulterior motives for this were based loosely on the hope that she could find her brother or any other member of the Trio. This paid off when she began to see the connection between Alex Evens and SKUL and warned MI9 that he might know where his sister was, starting up the long dead search for them. She received a call from Lee weeks later asking for information on her old teammates. Annabelle gave Lee all the information she needed, unaware that she now looked younger than Annabelle was. A couple of months later, her years of waiting were rewarded when Max visited her in the night and asked her for help on the Trio. He disappeared immediately after she gave him what he wanted and slipped under the radar again until he broke into MI9 using her identity card and updated all of MI9's database onto a memory stick. She has subsequently been reunited with him once more.

* * *

Name: Lizzie Evens

Codename: Lee

Age: 16

Adopted: Isaac and Jenna Evens

Occupation: MI9 field operatives

Lizzie's History: Lizzie's history, as has been explained in the Trio, was with her older brother Alex and, soon after her arrival, her younger sister Jessica. She loved both her brother and her sister. From a young age, Isaac and Jenna were secretly preparing Lizzie to become an MI9 agent. They took the family skiing, scuba diving and mountain climbing as far away from England as possible and exposing the family to as many foreign languages as they could. They enrolled them in main clubs around martial arts, athletics and, in Lizzie's case, gymnastics. They entered both Lizzie and Alex's names for the MI9 training programme. They were amazed and overwhelmed when Lizzie was accepted. Jenna did worry about Alex though when he was rejected on account of his age, particularly when Alex refused to try again. And we all know what happens next...

Now: Isaac and Jenna were buried in England. Lizzie was the only member of her family to publically attend the funeral. Alex took Jessica and Sally but they stood far enough away for no-one to notice or recognise them. He then took them into hiding and began to train them to become SKUL agents by separating them and pushing them to their limit. Lizzie, of course, was re-aged on her last mission and disappeared from many records due to the number of transfers and fostering she undertook. When Sally didn't come back after being sent after Oscar Cole, Alex feared that MI9 might get onto him and hid Jessica from everyone, keeping her close to him at all times. Fortunately for him, Luke had erased all evidence about the Trio's existence so no connection was made between Sally Evens and Lizzie Evens, aka Lee.

* * *

There you go. Look out for the final in the Trilogy of the Trio, set to be awesome! I prefer it to this fic, I must admit!

:D


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